The College Fix

Forbes severed its relationship with a columnist Wednesday afternoon after he published a piece titled “Drunk Female Guests Are The Gravest Threat To Fraternities,” written from his perspective as an alumnus fraternity adviser at MIT. That columnist, Bill Frezza, wrote this response to the hubbub for The College Fix.

My piece on student drinking and risk management that was removed from Forbes.com [Wednesday] clearly offended some readers. It is unfortunate that the point I was trying to make has been misunderstood and taken out of context by some.

As I indicated in my original piece, male and female students who choose to drink irresponsibly are a serious liability and concern for their hosts – whether it be a business or organization.

In my position as a fraternity adviser, I am well-versed in the policies to ensure student safety at fraternity events. However, the majority of these policies apply only to problematic male fraternity members. In an attempt to educate all students on risk assessment, the article focused on the lack of official policy on how male fraternity members should address intoxicated female guests who pose a risk to themselves and the organization. My advice in the piece was to treat intoxicated males and females the same: don’t let them in the door, and if they are already at an event put them in a cab or call campus police to escort them home immediately.

I understand that the attention-grabbing headline may have detracted from the point above, but anyone who read the piece in its entirety would understand I was referring to the fact that the sheer number of fraternity guests tend to be predominantly female as male non-members are frequently refused entry at the door.

The student drinking culture on campuses and the regulations that have contributed to it need to be studied further. Until then, students need to understand these risks and how to deal with those who choose to drink irresponsibly.

Bill Frezza

Read his original column, stored in Google’s Web cache, here, and follow him on Twitter here.

Greg Piper is an assistant editor at The College Fix. (@GregPiper)

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IMAGE: Forbes screenshot