As a college student who goes out and parties with her friends, I am a bystander almost every weekend. I know that underage drinking is illegal yet I still drink and I stand by while all my friends drink. I don't want to sit here and sound like I always think about the negative consequences of partying, I just have fun like everyone else, right? But at what point is that going to cost me or someone I know? Honestly, I'm not going to say I will never go out with my friends, but I think that it would be just as easy to suggest that my friends and I do something that doesn't involve alcohol.
In the greek community, bystanding also occurs when it comes to alcohol. I know that in my chapter girls get in trouble if things get a little out of hand or the alcohol has been a bit too free flowing. And before most of our social events, exec board reviews our chapter's policy about drinking etc. Obviously underage girls are not supposed to drink (legally), but that doesn't stop all of us from doing it. There is a very thin line between what rules are allowed to be broken and which ones will get us into trouble.
I think this is one of the things that leads to the negative stereotypes of greeks in general. We don't always uphold our rules which I think is one of the things that makes us all look bad. being so wishy washy is something that we can work on and it starts by us not just standing by and watching our organizations go down the drain.
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