The "Police Yourself" campaign against dangerous off-campus parties is a good start, but it's only the beginning of a series of actions that need to be undertaken to put this campus on the right path.
The aggressive attitude needs to be expanded to be truly effective. Threatening e-mails and massive crackdowns should only be the beginning. Therefore, I propose a series of radical new steps to strike at this monster before it kills again.
The first is a program to be called Students Undercover for Ball State (SUBS). To really curb underage drinking, the administration and law enforcement need to recruit students who are willing to act for the greater good. In exchange for imbursements comparable to that of RAs, the job of SUBS agents will be to go to parties and secretly alert police via cell phone when underage drinking occurs. They will also use picture cell phones so they can photograph criminals in the act.
Stricter rules and procedures also need to be implemented. A zero-tolerance policy for alcohol violations should be without question. Upon first violation, students need to be expelled. After all, if an individual does not have the intellect to follow the law and act in a responsible manner then he or she is incapable of succeeding at Ball State or a respectable job. For example, if one is convicted of drunk driving then they will never be president of the United States.
Students returning to their dorms after nights partying should be required to submit to breathalyzer tests. RAs and campus police should be given the authority to conduct regular random searches of dorm rooms. While we're at it, we might as well mandate weekly drug testing for all students.
Why would anyone who does not have anything to hide object to these sensible, effective policies? After all, they're only going to affect the criminals who should not be at Ball State anyway.
In fact, those who express any form of hostility, questioning or skepticism toward the administration's policies and actions needs to be seriously investigated and suppressed. Besides, they're only doing it because they're guilty too. The books they check out of Bracken need to be monitored. These individuals' ignorance and selfishness is unparalleled. You are either with us or the criminals. Those who would undermine the administration are just as guilty as those who would commit violence against innocent students.
The inarguable truth is that such traitors actually hate Ball State in spite of choosing to attend school here.
Suggestions calling for efforts to gradually adjust the college culture and improve the safety of Muncie are impractical, too expensive and childishly idealistic.
We must silence dissent in order to preserve the freedom to live in safety.
Those who attack the administration will be punished. For example, if an individual criticizes the university and they happen to be married to or dating someone who is in the SUBS program, the administration might then leak the identity of the undercover agent to a DAILY NEWS columnist in retaliation.
Were Ball State to have had such policies in place, the tragedies that have rocked this campus would never have occurred. If there's even the slightest chance of preventing future deaths then all of these programs are justified. To say anything otherwise would be un-Ball State.
E-mail: swimminginbrokenglass@yahoo.com
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