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May 11, 2005

Call Me Killjoy

I was just going through old email and noticed an announcement for a GW end-of-year party that was apparently last Friday at a local bar. I'm sure I wouldn't have gone even if I'd known about it—I was sleeping off a 24-hour paper-writing binge at the time. It's only worth mentioning because apparently the student government sponsored the event and paid for the first $3000 in drinks.

Does any other "profession" enable alcoholism the way law does?

Don't get me wrong. I'm a big beer fan and free drinks are really the best kind, but this just strikes me as, well, not the greatest idea. I mean, it's great that the student government organizes and sponsors the party, but why do they need to buy drinks? Law students who want to drink to celebrate the end of the year are going to drink regardless of whether someone else is buying, so if the student government has an extra $3000 to throw around, why not create a summer grant for a needy public interest law student or something?

Yeah, I'm obsessed with funding public interest law students.

Posted May 11, 2005 02:40 PM | law school


$3000? that's insane. our school usually offers coupons for two free drinks. and that's nowhere near $3000.

Posted by: monica at May 11, 2005 04:03 PM

That's nothing... this year, our SBA ran out of money because of high bar tabs at events. Yep. That $150 I pay each semester wasn't enough... which is really sad, considering I haven't been to a law school function to partake in any of the beer/wine/Thunderbird I've been subsidizing.

I'm hardly a teetotaler, but I have never seen an institution so blatantly promote indiscriminate drinking, all the while claiming to warn students about the dangers of alcoholism in this profession. And it's not limited to my school, all the schools in the city do it. I wasn't joking when I wrote this.

Posted by: Dave! at May 11, 2005 05:51 PM

Dave: That's priceless. I don't remember anything quite that ridiculously contradictory at GW, but such things are bound to happen when law schools make drinking more or less part of the curriculum. And like I said, I love the beer; I'm just thinking that most of the law students I know also love the beer (or wine, or whatever), so we really don't need this kind of encouragement.

Posted by: ambimb at May 11, 2005 06:53 PM

You speak the truth. Someone needs to do something about SBA's idiotic spending habits. Why is SBA helping to fund ski trips and bar reviews? It seems ridiculous.

Posted by: krepsm at May 11, 2005 11:10 PM

I couldn't agree with you more, ai. I'm a 1L at GW and I don't take part in many of the social events, mainly because I see enough of my classmates at school. But I'd much rather see that 3k go towards a grant for a student doing a PI job this summer (and pay for my own drinks when I go out). Any way to let the SBA know that people feel this way? Or would the number of students that feel differently greatly outweigh us?

Posted by: gw1L at May 22, 2005 04:06 PM

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