With the sharp chill of winter in the air, and armchair quarterbacks loudly waging a post-season de-emphasis battle among themselves, Harvard men can once again settle down to some serious, altruistic drinking. A Social Relations thesis has finally formalized the vague nations about the drinking morals of the Harvard man.
The Harvard man is a drinking man. From the early days of ripe apples and the tang of sour cider, down through the uproarious debauches of the Memorial Hall dining room, students have preserved a taste for alcohol, straight or mixed.
The post-war University man is a far more somber, tense character than his bell-raising predecessor of the twenties or his inflamed, rabble-rousing brother of the New Deal thirties. The contemporary student worries. He worries about the draft, about the world situation, about the lack of values, and most of all, about the dim, dim future.
How do outside forces affect his rate of drinking?
Men both in and out of the University have long held irreconcilable ideas on the amount of liquor consumed in the College, on the University's perennial drunkards, and of those who drank during exams and still managed to pass with an A.
Roger V. Pugh, Jr. '51, 11., a Social Relations major, submitted a thesis last spring entitled "The Drinking Habits of the Harvard Man" which should enlighten those who have speculated long and often on this subject.
According to this study of College seniors, one-half of the members of athletic teams drink during season, one-third of the students spend less than a dollar a month on alcohol, and one-quarter of the students have passed out from drinking. Pugh adds that between one-seventh and one-eighth of the students are consistent heavy drinkers.
What is a Heavy Drinker?
Pugh's heavy drinker is one who drinks "almost daily, regularly to excess, and has gone on a bender of over 24 hours."
The first consideration is why people drink. Of the 67 men to whom Pugh asked this question, 65--who admitted they drank--replied in the following manner: for the hell of it, to get away from it all, because they see others doing it, in college to get drunk, because they have nothing else to do, because of world tension and the collapse of all values, to get a girl, as a prelude to sex, to overcome fatigue, to relax, to be different, heats the hell out of me, for the thrill, and for the taste.
It would seem that the main motivation for drinking is a desire to conform or escape. Pugh notes that this form of drinking is common in the United States. In contrast to the European motivation to drink, which is of largely taste and tradition.
The men who answered Pugh questionnaire are categorically divided as follows: Drinking by Athletes Heavier drinkers are more often members of college athletic teams, drink during the season more, and celebrate the end of the season with more gusto and more consumption. "Perhaps," Pugh suggests, "the report throws a light on some of the recent records of Harvard athletic teams." Of the 25 athletes in the survey, 12 drank during the season. Where do students drink? Pugh reports that in the immediate vicinity of the Square there are 12 eating places which serve alcoholic beverages, 10 final clubs, three liquor stores, the Lampoon and three other clubs, and the Hasty Pudding. Read more in News
