21 Ordinance; handing the Greek community its fate

On June 1, 2010, there will no longer be any 19+ bars in Iowa City.  After June 1st, you must be 21 to enter any bars in Iowa City. With that being said, as a member of the Greek community, I am waving goodbye to ever socializing with Greeks outside of my own sorority.

What Sally Mason and all the other ignorant old folks who have authority at this university don't understand is that the Greek community relies heavily on the 19+ bars for social events.  Every Thursday, a fraternity and sorority are paired together to have what is called a "social," where they rent out a bar for an hour or two for the fraternity and sorority to socialize with each other.  We do these socials at the bars because, as I'm sure every Iowa student knows, we are dry campus, which means parties, let alone alcohol, are not allowed at the fraternity or sorority houses.

With the 21 ordinance going into effect next year, the Greek community is currently in a state of panic.  It has been brought up that there may no longer be socials at all, because there is no where for us to hold them.  This is just unfair, especially for new freshmen pledges, who don't know anyone outside of their chapter.  Socials are a perfect way to branch out and meet other people in the Greek community.  Should that really be taken away from us?  Isn't the main reason people go Greek is so they can meet new people?  To me, it is completely unjustifiable to completely cut off all possible socialization options for the Greek community, which makes up over 10% of the Iowa student body.  It is literally impossible to declare Iowa a dry campus and then take away our bar access as well, and still expect the Greek community to still thrive.  As it is, less and less incoming freshmen rush every year.  Iowa is a Big Ten school with over 25,000 students, we shouldn't struggle to get people to join the Greek community.  Yet this 21 ordinance is just another barrier.

Sure, it has been brought to the attention of every Greek chapter that Greeks get a majority of the drinking tickets issued in downtown Iowa City.  But, again, this is an unfair accusation.  This is so because everyone in the Greek community is social.  I'll be completely honest, everyone in the Greek community likes to drink and likes to go out.  But is this a bad thing?  To single out Greeks as the problem with drinking in downtown Iowa City is completely unfair because it's a guarantee that a large percentage of the people downtown are Greek.  We're social, we like to go out, so, yes, you'll see us downtown.  Not everyone outside of the Greek community is as social, or likes to go downtown, which is also not a bad thing.  But, in that case, obviously Greeks are going to receive majority of the drinking tickets because they make up a majority of the people that are downtown every night.

Furthermore, if Sally Mason thinks that by passing the 21 ordinance, underage drinking at the bars will stop, she is seriously mistaken.  This 21 ordinance is simply going to encourage the use of fake IDs, which is also a serious crime.  Does it make more sense to encourage kids to use fake IDs or to allow fraternities to have alcohol in their house?  Sally Mason is not going to get away with this for long, she has to allow one or the other or the Greek system is going to disappear fast.