On the night of August 14, hundreds of people under 21 were drinking in Boston. Most of them didn’t get caught.
But, that same night, one party with alleged underage drinkers left nine Northeastern students without a job and the student government president’s future hanging in the balance.
Andres Vargas, the SGA president, will face a judicial committee composed of his peers in the coming weeks with the minimum sanction of deferred suspension from Northeastern. If found responsible, he will be forced to resign from his post for providing alcohol at the alleged party underage drinkers attended. Three days after the party in question, nine Orientation Leaders (OL) were forced to resign from their post or face termination.
All of the sanctions stemmed from a report provided to the New Student Orientation Office by an orientation supervisor. The student provided the office with a list of names of people at the party.
Housing or serving underage drinkers, aside from being against the law, is strictly against the Student Code of Conduct. Most people don’t have to worry about many consequences when they engage in this type of activity. But student leaders do.
The SGA president gig is no fluff job. Not only does the president hob-knob with top ranking university administrators, he must also represent everything that is great about the student body. Oh, and he gets full tuition reimbursement from the university – a.k.a. he goes to school free of charge.
With all of that hanging over his head, Vargas absolutely should and did know better than to throw this party.
But, Vargas vehemently denies that there were underage drinkers in his apartment that night. He claims all drinking was done either before or after people came to his house. Even with several OLs standing by his side it’s a tough sell. No drinking at all? Some party.
It goes back to high school mentality. How many times did those poor innocent freshmen think they were going to throw a party for their close friends and hundreds of people showed up? Vargas, you can’t hide this from everybody. Word spreads fast.
Should Vargas step down? Depends on your thought process.
Rules are rules. Underage drinking is against the law as well as the Student Code of Conduct. There is absolutely no justifiable situation where underage college students should be drinking.
But in the real world, this is an everyday occurrence. Most people don’t walk into a party and gasp, “Look at all this underage drinking! We should most definitely leave.”
Vargas made a mistake. He should fess up to it and face the consequences. Lying about the presence of alcohol is not helping his case. And it’s not fooling anyone.
It’s a shame that such a promising student leader might not even make it through his first full semester. Most people know when they do something illegal there is a chance they will be caught. And chances are, Vargas will pay the price.
