Skyboxes deserve alcohol access

THE ONLY THING worse than rampant vice is rampant virtue. G.K. Chesterton argues in his excellent book, “Orthodoxy,” that the modern world suffers from the release of virtues from a coherent system that ties them all together.

“Thus,” he writes, “some scientists care for truth; and their truth is pitiless. Thus some humanitarians only care for pity; and their pity (I am sorry to say) is often untruthful.”

I would argue that we in the United States have become overly enamored of equality, or what we think is equality, and neglectful of its sister virtue, fairness.

Let’s take as an example the recent series of articles and editorials that have been published in The Collegian with regard to the “double standard” of the university’s ban on alcohol at football games

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Students are upset that they cannot purchase alcohol, but the consensus among students has been either to accept the ban and not drink or to just get drunk before the game.

But now students are calling the ban unfair because they have discovered that the catering service in the skybox suites includes alcohol.

If we view the people in the skyboxes as on an equal footing with students, there is a clear double standard and the ban is unfair.

The fact is, however, that with regard to this particular issue, students are not equal to the people in the skyboxes and for two very good reasons.

First, we students have a history of misbehavior at football games that is largely attributable to alcohol abuse; the patrons in the skyboxes do not.

Students have shown by their actions that they aren’t willing to drink responsibly at football games, and this has reflected poorly not only on our sports teams but also on the university and its student body.

We have separated ourselves from the people in the skyboxes by our poor behavior in the past, and it is fitting that we be regarded and punished as a separate group.

Second, the people in the skyboxes are of a higher social class than the students, and for the exact reason that everyone thinks is so awful: they have more money.

Let’s just stop and think for a while about who these people are that pay exorbitant amounts of money for catered, furnished skyboxes.

Most of them are prominent members of the community who by their very economic success hold more real power than the average student.

Most of them are alumni of Fresno State and are excited about what the university has to offer to the community.

Most of them are in a position to make financial contributions to the university that significantly affect the quality of our educational experience; many of them already have.

These people are our benefactors, both as students and as citizens.

Our conception of equality is unrealistic, our sense of fairness lacking.

As Americans we hold that certain inalienable rights are extended to all people equally; but we do not maintain the absurdities of strict social and economic equality.

The real backbone of our social and economic systems is fairness, people getting what they deserve.

If we really want to pursue a change in university policy that takes alcohol out of the skyboxes, it seems to me that we students are biting the hand that feeds us.

Each of us has to make a choice: will we keep shouting about unfairness and keep trying to undermine our benefactors in the name of equality, or will we own up to our past mistakes and show in the future that Fresno State students have both character and school spirit?

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