EDITORIAL Fraternity parties: wristband required? As Friday rolls around and the weekend is in sight, one thing will be noarly guaranteed — fraternity parties, a time when men and women unite and put the new. as of September. alcohol policy into effect. This is the same policy that was required by the University to tack le the problem of underage drinking, common to the greok system, to the dorm system and common to the world as well. This new policy was created to not only eliminate underage drinking but to distribute the liability that goes with it equally among men and women and the houses they represent. So how does it all work? If you’re 21 years old. prior to the beginning of the party you hand in your night’s worth of alcohol — a six pack of fine beer, for example. You get a wristband (much like the ones that are given out at Disneyland), and sometime in the process, your six-pack is marked with a distinguishing feature — your initials on the bot tom of the cans, for example, As the night takes its path and your path leads you back to the monitored bar for one of your beers, the bailee working the bar, over 21 of course, hands you one of your Ihsots. The end result is that liability for an alco hol-related accident that may occur is (supposedly) left to the individual fraternity or sorority that boars respon sibility for the victim. The liability is no longer (sup posedly) on the party’s host house. The alcohol policy sounds somewhat good — or at least sounds like a good idea and works well on the University level, but when the police arrive, the story is a little different. For some reason, the police officers really aren’t concerned with who came from where (imagine that) An officer from the Eugene police depart ment says the liability is on the party’s host house, the fraternity or sorority. 1’ho wristbands (like the ones they give out at Disneyland) serve little purpose as far as lia bility goes. Then why abide by the policy? Because the Univer sity administration requested it. Developed by the stu dents and approved by the University, the policy had to be installed. In order for many of the houses in the greok system to be recognized by their sponsors, they must also bo recognized by the University, In turn, the hous es must abide by the rules of the University In order to bo recognized. Because the University does recognize the greok sys tem, the greok system gets a few porks. Those include, for example, the use of classrooms for meetings, a small corner of an office in Suite 5 EMU. a list of incoming freshmen, two advisers (who work quite hard, consid ering there aro only two of them and the greok system includes nearly 20 percent of the student body) and a copy machine. Of course the brunt of the expenses are shouldered by the fraternities and sororities themselves, not the University administration that's telling them what to do. When the next fraternity party rolls around remember where the liability really Is. Bo sure to drink responsibly but remember it doesn't matter where you are from, only where you are consuming. Oregon Daily PO 00* jtW fuCINC OPtGOWv'*C3 The Oregon D&ty t n>i*akt if published darty Mcxxlay through Ff*i«y during Ihe schoo^ year and Tuesday and Thursday during mo summer by Ih© Oregon Da^iy Emerald Publishing Co . toe at the Universe of Oregon. E ugene. Oregon The Emerald operate* wdependenHy of the Uorversrty w»th offices at Suae 300 of the f »t) Memorial Un«on and •« a member of the Associated Press The ( mon mentioned as i ornpetition for KWVA I think the different e between these two stations can illustrate this debate. kl)Wk is too bub ble-gum pop for most college students to deal with for more than a half hour at a time, and kWVA is too far on the alterna tive extreme. Within the gap could be a great radio station (with a very wide appeal) I know KWVA has no inter est in a 50-50 compromise with the Top 40. and it shouldn't. College radio is supposed to lie alternative. But there are degrees within alternative, ranging from the unestablished (Agent Orange) to the estab lished (Blind Melon) The established alternative arlists (some would think this phras ing is a contradiction in terms, but you know what I mean) have had hits and the unestab lished have not KWVA leans toward the unestablished like every college radio station should, but I think it leans too often toward the obscure By doing this it is isolating itself ns a station for die-hard alterna tive fans, and, like Abraham said, such a format doesn't rep resent most college students. J.D. Pierson, KWVA general manager, established that it s a miniscule contribution by each student to have KWVA [ODE. Dec. 2). True, each student's contribution is essentially insignificant, but the principle is that a student-funded organi zation is obligated to at least consider what these letters are saying. In his commentary Pierson asked for suggestions. Here's one: how about a section on the CD shelves for "recognizable bands'? (Call it the Abraham rotation.) Require D)s to play two songs an hour from that shelf. Whether they play the hits or unreleased songs would . lx1 for thorn to decide individu ally Tim section could have about 20 to .'<0 albums on it. with the particular selection being rotat ed every other week I would suggest albums such as U2’s Th>‘ Joshua Tree. Belly's Star, Metnllii a s And /ustice For All, Even if KWVA completely sold out and went mainstream, it would still be playing more than one type of music. K.K M s Green. The Cranber ries' Everybody's Doing It. So Why Can t U'e.T INXS' new album. Rod Hot Chili Peppers' ■» What Hits'!. Lenny Kravitz' Are You Gonna Go My Way?. Harry Connick. Jr s IVe Are In lx>ve, ^ /.iggy Marley's Conscious Party. Dr. Ore's The Chronic. Prince's symbol album. Depeche Mode's Violator, Sting’s Nothing Like the Sun. the Singles soundtrack and more. In Pierson's commentary he wrote that KWVA has garnered a “great deal of praise and sup port from our listeners.. ." Exactly. That praise and sup port is from your listeners. What about your non-listen ers? Have you ever done any research into why a seemingly laigegroup ofatudents isn't lis tening' There is a reason, and despite KWVA's disregard of Abraham and Nakamura as lone nuts, I am afraid they speak for a lot more people than you think. If you people are out there, like 1 know you are. pick up a pen and use your voice. Like a certain voice from the heart land says. "You gotta stand for somethin', or you're gonna fall for anything." Bret Landess is a student at the University. He has not declared a major.