Attitudes Towards Alcohol: Why Trinity College’s oldest tradition needs a serious change

“Trinity is the very definition of a drinking culture,” declared Basil Southey (1T8) when asked whether or not a drinking culture exists at Trinity. “Every single event involves alcohol or revolves around alcohol, even when the event itself theoretically has no affiliation with drinking,” he said.

What bothers Basil the most about the drinking culture at the college are the jokes about alcoholism that arise from the acceptance, and arguably the promotion, of heavy drinking habits. “If you can joke that nonchalantly about alcoholism, you clearly have not been affected by an alcoholic in your life,” he commented.

The presence of a “drinking culture” at Trinity College appears to be widely and tacitly acknowledged, but there is less consensus on the extent to which it harms our student body and the bodies of our students. Some of our members believe that the presence and normalisation of frequent alcohol consumption has allowed the college to develop effective mechanisms and structures to deal with the effects of overconsumption of alcohol. Others argue that the practice and encouragement of heavy drinking is dangerous, excludes people who do not, or cannot, drink alcohol.

“I would define [a drinking culture] as a social environment that places harmful pressure on its participants to drink,” said former Sober Patrol Captain Elisse Magnusson (1T5). Elisse acknowledges the presence of alcohol in many social situations at Trinity, but does not think there is any exceptionally harmful pressure to drink beyond that which is generally present in North American college culture. However, at the University of Toronto, there is evidently a difference between Trinity, which has a liquor license, and the other colleges.

While students at other colleges probably drink as much as Trinity students, the licenced events make a difference, Basil says. “I’d say in some ways [the liquor license] makes it more official that we drink that much. At Trinity, because all the events have alcohol, it sort of makes it an even more integral part of our culture.”

Jaclyn Flom (1T7) believes that events such as Bubbly, which is very alcohol-centred, could still be a lot of fun if there was no alcohol. “If I took away the alcohol aspect, I still think it would be a really cool event with the classy music and the atmosphere,” she said.

Frosh Week is the time when new students get their first impressions of the college and its drinking patterns. “I know in Frosh Week, my experience was a lot of people saying that you are allowed to drink and we are not going to fault you for that and provide the resources for you to be able to do so, but there wasn’t as much emphasis on ‘if you don’t want to drink, it’s okay,’ or, ‘here’s an environment where no-one will be drinking,’” Jaclyn said.

During my own Frosh Week, the Tabula Rasa of 2012, there was alternative programming for those who were quieter or did not want to drink. As considerate as this was, I am not convinced that this is the solution to including those who do not drink. Encouraging safe and moderate drinking would definitely be a better approach than setting up a dichotomy whereby one either gets trashed or does not drink at all.

“I think the most important changes that could be made should be done on an individual level,” said Elisse, adding that people need to be accepting of those who choose not to drink, and should not encourage dangerous drinking. “Most alcohol consumption occurs in private settings with friends, and so I think that these are important spaces to look out for one another,” Elisse said.

The pervasiveness of alcohol at our events extends beyond parties; it also affects the operation of our clubs. The Trinity College Literary Institute (The Lit) and the James Bond Society are prominent examples. “One of the number one reasons people go to the Lit is for the free beer,” said Basil, who also expressed disappointment that the James Bond Society does not show Bond films on a regular basis. These two clubs, on paper, are about debating and movie appreciation. In practice however, they revolve strongly around drinking.

Despite certain drawbacks both in terms of health and social fabric, the drinking culture at Trinity may in fact better equip the college to handle alcohol-related issues. “I think Trinity has better mechanisms for helping these students than many other places,” said Elisse.

“I think a lot of problems are actually taken care of by Trinity’s alcohol culture.I think the alcohol culture and the way that we deal with it is really good compared to other institutions,” agreed Jaclyn.

Indeed, there is a certain rationale for making alcohol more accessible. Many argue that since underage students will probably be drinking anyway, the best thing to do is to make it possible to drink in a familiar, safe environment. This does, however, leave me wondering about whether the structures we have in place are truly about the safety of students, or if they are merely reactionary establishments.

The same question can be applied to Trinity’s other mechanism: the Sober Patrol, which has garnered high praise as an initiative, is built around the premise that students are inevitably going to get too drunk for their own good. The fact that the Sober Patrol exists anticipates dangerous drinking behaviour, but is not proof of any commitment to reduce or discourage it.

I cannot with any certainty say to what extent our drinking culture is harmful, but we could definitely do better.