The law school warns us that lawyers and law students are more susceptible to alcoholism than the general population. And yet…
Drunk law student stories are a stable of the law school rumor mill and beer at on-campus student events is inconsistent with the lip service the school pays to preventing alcoholism in the profession.
It’s like donating to the American Cancer Society but maintaining a cigarette machine outside of your store.
We are supposedly all adults here, and some students cannot or will not hold their liquor (or act in a socially appropriate manner.) That’s fine, but there are better uses for my tuition money.
4 Comments
pscrawfo
April 14, 2010 at 2:50 pmI think the expectation is that they are attempting to teach law students to drink responsibly in a controlled environment. Granted, this is not always the outcome. However, when I attend events put on by the law school that involve alcohol I take it as an exercise in restraint. Learning how to handle the social pressures of common legal social environments is important after many students have just left the binge-emporium that is undergraduate college. (I also understand that not all law students go straight from undergrad to law school. My comment is not intended for them, because they are smarter than most to begin with.)
Jansen
April 14, 2010 at 3:46 pmThe problem at my school is that although people gossip about the drunk scenes, the word rarely gets back to the actor. The same people who were hot messes as 1Ls are still outrageous now, and probably unaware of it, so the “learning” part never happens.
A good example is the Malpractice Ball (which is like law school prom with the med students)… the law school is supposedly banned from the on-campus museum because a few students ruined artwork when the ball was hosted there a few years back. It’s just tacky, and I don’t even go to law school events lest I get associated with it.
Fellow 2L
April 15, 2010 at 3:01 pmWait, there was free booze?
Jansen
April 17, 2010 at 12:04 pmEverywhere.