Dispatches from Another Planet

From the Gazette-Times, a letter that...well, look:

The amazing amount of drinking and partying any time of day or night, mid-week or week-end, is a health danger to the students, a destructive force in the lives of their neighbors, and a safety risk to all involved. Lives are being destroyed by alcoholism, but at any time we could see a similar tragedy to the one in North Carolina.

Two things must be done immediately: The City Council should adopt an ordinance forbidding more than two adults from different families in any single-family dwelling. Second, OSU must require that all undergraduates live on campus until their senior year.

Forbidding more than two adults from different families from living together? That's just insulting - there are plenty of students for whom such luxurious conditions are simply not an option. And, of course, many of the new apartment buildings going up in Corvallis are those crazy five-bedroom townhouses that rent for well over $2000; I would like to see Mr. Weiss explain how two STUDENTS are supposed to afford that. The same goes for the dozens or hundreds of older houses with three, four, and five (or more) bedrooms that have been converted into student housing.

And requiring all undergrads to live on campus for at least three years? Please:

1. OSU does not have anywhere near the capacity to do this. Maybe when the Leg allocates enough money to triple (or more) the number of dorm rooms available, then it might be logistically possible. But...

2. It takes away freedom and agency from legal adults. If Mr. Weiss wants people to be treated like children until they are 21 or 22, then he should just say so - and be prepared to be mocked and ridiculed extensively, because that suggestion is just plain stupid.

3. Can you imagine what would happen if college students were allowed to move off-campus only upon turning 21? I think the drinking problem, such as it is now, would get much, much worse.

While this guy's concern is obviously genuine, his suggestions are - and I think this is an accurate choice of words - fucking idiotic. He just doesn't get at anything even remotely resembling a cause for the problems to which he alludes.