RPI follows Clarkson and St Lawrence games with suspensions

[marty]

I haven't seen this linked on ELynah.  I hope this isn't a repetitive:


http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=328380&category=SPORTS&newsdate=1/31/2005

[Will]

As people on the USCHO message board had remarked, this is effectively a non-story.  The guys owned up to their crime and did the time.  No scandal.

[Josh '99]

I'm inclined to say that it's still a story even if it's not a scandal.  :-P

[billhoward]

RPI of course can have team rules saying no booze on the bus. But overall the 21-year drinking law is an ass. There's no way you can stop 18- to 20-year-olds from drinking. The ex-President of Middlebury, John M. McCardell Jr., said in an Op-Ed piece in The New York Tiimes last fall http://query.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F10913F838540C708DDDA00894DC404482 (the link is to a fee not free page) that there were two things he should have spoken out against more forcefully during his term as president:

- Lifetime tenure for faculty
>>> tenure is a great solution to the problems of the 1940's, when the faculty was mostly male and academic freedom was at genuine risk. Why must institutions make a judgment that has lifetime consequences after a mere six or seven years? ... Why not a system of contracts of varying length, including lifetime for the most valuable colleagues? [One will note he waited until after he retired and was safely away from the Middlebury facility, ensconsed in Beaufort, SC, before writing this.]

- The 21-year-drinking age
>>> ... the 21-year-old drinking age is bad social policy and terrible law. It is astonishing that college students have thus far acquiesced in so egregious an abridgment of the age of majority. Unfortunately, this acquiescence has taken the form of binge drinking. Campuses have become, depending on the enthusiasm of local law enforcement, either arms of the law or havens from the law. Neither state is desirable. State legislators, many of whom will admit the law is bad, are held hostage by the denial of federal highway funds if they reduce the drinking age. Our latter-day prohibitionists have driven drinking behind closed doors and underground. This is the hard lesson of prohibition that each generation must relearn. No college president will say that drinking has become less of a problem in the years since the age was raised. ... Colleges should be given the chance to educate students, who in all other respects are adults, in the appropriate use of alcohol, within campus boundaries and out in the open. And please -- hold your fire about drunken driving. I am a charter member of Presidents Against Drunk Driving. This has nothing to do with drunken driving. If it did, we'd raise the driving age to 21. That would surely solve the problem.

As for the instance of the RPI skaters who drank a bottle of hard (hard, apparently) liquor on the bus, they broke team rules, yes, but those rules were probably in no small part the result of the 21-year drinking age. Older Cornellians may recall teams stopped for beers on the way back from away games. Sitting in the back of a bus having a couple beers on the way back from some godforsaken place such as Potsdam seems harmless enough.

And, sheesh, guys, why'd you leave the empty on the bus for the coach to find? That's the dumbest thing of all, especially for a team where (the Albany paper says) virtually everyone is on the dean's list.

Nice article by Morosi. The man has talent, even if he is from Harvard.

(Sorry if this saddens anyone who's had a personal tragedy because of alcohol. I was hit and rolled by a drunk when I was 16 (the police drove him home, no charges filed; he was important in the community) and I learned a powerful lesson: If the car isn't on fire, don't be in a hurry to press the seat belt release when you're upside down. About ten years later a woman on I-91 in the car ahead of me, unbelted, was hit and killed by a wrong way driver.)

[Nate 04]

I think the most scandalous thing about this is that guys who owned up to their mistake were suspended for two league games (no objection here), but the UND guy who was arrested (2 games) for drunk driving and the canisius players (2 exhibition games) received relatively lighter punishments for more serious offenses.

[Will]

[Q]Nate 04 Wrote:

 I think the most scandalous thing about this is that guys who owned up to their mistake were suspended for two league games (no objection here), but the UND guy who was arrested (2 games) for drunk driving and the canisius players (2 exhibition games) received relatively lighter punishments for more serious offenses.[/q]

Agreed.  The UND guy missed the all-too-important game against Bemidji State.  I'm sure they really missed him in that game. ::rolleyes::

[Greg Berge]

Academic freedom is no longer as much at risk in large part *because* of lifetime tenure.  To say we don't need it anymore is like saying we shouldn't immunize against measles because it isn't as big a problem as it used to be. ::screwy::

[RichS]

Before you think that drinking on the bus is harmless, you should put yourself in a coach's shoes and consider his responsibilities in the matter.   Those kids may well be driving when they get off the bus.  Guess who would be held responsible if an accident were to occur ?

And oh...Potsdam is no less "God forsaken" than Ithaca.  ::rolleyes::

[KeithK]

[q]As for the instance of the RPI skaters who drank a bottle of hard (hard, apparently) liquor on the bus, they broke team rules, yes, but those rules were probably in no small part the result of the 21-year drinking age.[/q]If the drinking age were reduced to 18 it would still be prudent to not permit drinking on the team bus for liability reasons.  The school is responsible for what happens while on road trips.

[q]And, sheesh, guys, why'd you leave the empty on the bus for the coach to find? That's the dumbest thing of all, especially for a team where (the Albany paper says) virtually everyone is on the dean's list.[/q]Um, because they were drunk?

[ben03]

[Q]RichS Wrote:
And oh...Potsdam is no less "God forsaken" than Ithaca.[/q]
hey Rich, get over yourself for a second and realize you are not telling us anything we don't know already.
BTW, Potsdam is pretty damn "God forsaken"  ... i mean c'mon who are you kidding Canton is nicer than Potsdam ::twak::

[RichS]

Ben,

Stop and think a minute.

For one thing, apparently not everyone "knows" since it was said that the drinking was "harmless enough".  As a HS coach I know I'll be held responsible for whatever happens on a bus, in a locker room, or at the rink.  Even if it's not fair, you can bet some Mom or dad will want to sue a coach or a district should anything happen to their child.

You think it's any different at the college level?

Canton better than Potsdam.? Well, only if you think Pizza Hut gives the former an edge! .::rolleyes::

Take off your carnellian glasses and take a real look at downtown Ithaca.  I grew up in Binghamton many years ago and visited cornell and Ithaca many times in the past and it's been downhill for Ithaca for many years now

[RichH]

[Q]RichS Wrote:
Take off your carnellian glasses and take a real look at downtown Ithaca.  I grew up in Binghamton many years ago and visited cornell and Ithaca many times in the past and it's been downhill for Ithaca for many years now [/q]

I didn't see Ben say anything about Ithaca.  Only god-forsaken Potsdam. :-}

[Greg Berge]

RichS,

To be serious, although downtown Ithaca went through a mini-depression and was looking pretty skanky in the late 80's through mid 90's, it's rebounded.  There are also a lot of lovely areas throughout Ithaca and Tompkins County.  The Center of Crappiness has now moved up the hill and is located in quickly disappearing Collegetown, official motto, "What's Character When You Can Put Up Another 6 Story Residential Veal Fattening Pen"?

I've only seen Potsdam for hockey, which means (1) I haven't been paying attention to anything but finding Cheel or being pissed off after losing to Clarkson and (2) I have only seen it in the dead of winter, but it's an okay town AFAIC.  I think the hosing down you take on the board is attributable to rivalry with tongue firmly planted in cheek.  Hopefully you take it this way.

[ben03]

[Q]RichS Wrote:
Ben,

Stop and think a minute.

For one thing, apparently not everyone "knows" since it was said that the drinking was "harmless enough".  As a HS coach I know I'll be held responsible for whatever happens on a bus, in a locker room, or at the rink.  Even if it's not fair, you can bet some Mom or dad will want to sue a coach or a district should anything happen to their child.

You think it's any different at the college level?

Canton better than Potsdam.? Well, only if you think Pizza Hut gives the former an edge! .

Take off your carnellian glasses and take a real look at downtown Ithaca.  I grew up in Binghamton many years ago and visited cornell and Ithaca many times in the past and it's been downhill for Ithaca for many years now [/q]
Rich, i guess they don't teach sarcasm 101 in Potsdam ... and i never disagreed with the drinking part of your statement, did i? didn't think so :-) moving on ...

[RichS]

Ben,

You said I was telling you something everyone already knew.  Obviously thets not so since one person characterized the drinking as "harmless".  I never said YOU disagreed with the drinking part.

Do they teach Reading comp at cornell?  ::rolleyes::

And right RichH, Ben did not mention Ithaca.  I did...it's just as God forsaken downtown if not more so than the North Country.  Actually, the NC is a lot closer to being "God's Country.

Ok, that's enough sarcasm I think.  I have HS hockey to go watch now.  :-D