House parties have become the standard environment for binge-drinking. Through personal experience and research of our environment here on campus, we have found that many students hosting these parties are ill-prepared to prevent dangers.

Prevalent dangers found within the student body include large, overly intoxicated crowds in small places. That combination multiplies the likelihood of violence. Such situations show there is a societal problem at the University of Wisconsin where safety at house parties is overlooked and leads to dangers.

Through our own personal research we found that all applicants experienced a house party from anywhere between twice a week to once every other week, with a majority of those respondents having experienced some sort of negative feedback. Such feedback included getting a ticket for some sort of violation, drinking too much while at the party, walking home with some unknown person from the party, or violence in the form of fighting.

Yet, our results revealed some surprising evidence that house party safety is not an issue. Although our interviewees have experienced danger as a result of a house party and all of our interviewees know someone who has been in a dangerous situation as a result of a house party, the majority of those interviews are not concerned with safety or interested in learning more about house party safety. This poses a problem in that students are not aware of repercussions that can develop while hosting a party or attending one.

Through our own findings we also discovered that students here on campus hold a positive attitude toward changing safety levels here on campus. In order to make such changes certain, sacrifices must be made for the benefit of all that attend these parties. And such changes need to be made by both the hosts that entertain and the guests that come to the party. Both need to realize that certain situations lead to trouble, and they need to change their behavior in order to avoid past problems.

Behavior changes include knowing when someone is too drunk to drink anymore and helping them out if they can not help themselves, making sure that tempers stay controlled so that violence does not break out, and realizing that there is a limit to the number of people one location may safely accommodate. Crowd control is something very important ? even large cities, experienced with such tasks, typically find it extremely problematic. Respondents to our questionnaire found this danger ? crowd control ? deserving the most attention, both in our city and abroad.

Based on these messages from those students who attend and host house parties, we believe it is important that students take these messages under direct advisement, especially given all the negative attention UW has drawn on itself. We as students have to bring credibility back to the way we conduct ourselves at night, considering the scrutiny in which that we are now caught.

As students, we have to put our best foot forward so that future students do not have to suffer the consequences of our actions. Hopefully, with the help of this article, students will listen to our advice and recall it when they host or attend a house party.

Matt Schuenke ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in business. Luke Rupnow ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in communication arts.