Senior Chris Babcock, Senate Vice President, has had enough. In response to the infamous new alcohol policy, Babcock, along with the rest of the Community Senate, has been conducting a survey of student reaction to it. The survey is an attempt to formulate arguments against the new policy, and ultimately change it for good.

The new policy, effective earlier this year, drastically raised the penalties for the possession or use of any alcoholic beverage of any kind.

Last year, the penalties were extremely lenient. If someone was caught drinking, the worst that would happen would be time spent doing Community Service.

This year, however, the penalties have become much more severe. Any student caught possessing or using alcohol underage is automatically fined $75. Even students 21 and over are not allowed to drink in public places, or they will be subject to the same fines.

Mona Olds, Dean of Student Life, described the fines as a “deterrent.”

“The new penalties are designed to deter people from high risk drinking, which is a threat to the community’s overall safety,” said Olds.

The new policy is under fire from many prominent student leaders such as Babcock, who questions how well this policy “actually improves student life”.

“One must realize that people are going to drink on this campus, and nothing is going to stop that. Making such harsh penalties for drinking is simply going to result in closet drinking, because people will be afraid of getting busted at parties.”

He also goes on to explain how the new policy also leads to more drinking and driving.

“People are afraid to drink on campus, so they go drink somewhere off-campus, which results in more cases of drinking and driving, creating a greater threat to the Guilford community, and the entire Greensboro community as well,” he said.

“I find that the fines are ridiculous,” he continued. “There are a lot of people here at Guilford who would have a lot of trouble paying $75 every time they get caught drinking. There are some people here who can just call up their parents and get the money, when they need it, but many students here, especially individuals on scholarships, are not that fortunate.”

Olds defended the fines, stating that the new penalties, which are designed to affect “high-risk drinkers,” simply keep them from buying their alcohol.

“Since the high-risk drinkers are paying so much money for their alcohol, the fines simply make them unable to finance their habit, which they would have used the money for anyway,” said Olds.

In any case, Community Senate continues with the survey. Babcock explained that the end goal of the survey is to convince the administration to lift the fines.

He also outlined how the survey will take place. Once Senate is done finalizing the questions, they will go door-to-door, and ask every student what he or she thinks.

When asked whether he has any hope for changing the policy in the near future, Babcock expressed hope. He went on to say that there may be a possible chance that Senate can get the fines lifted for the first offense, having a few hours of Community Service instead. He added that the policy might even be changed this year.

To make that happen, however, Babcock stressed that this is a battle Senate cannot fight alone.

“To get this done, we really need the students to be active about this, and back Senate,” he said. “Without the help and support of the student body, we are powerless.