On Saturday, Sept. 17, Waterville police showed up at 16 Winter Street for an off-campus party involving alcohol and under-age drinking; over 50 students from the Hill face alcohol charges for their decisions that night.

This semester, off-campus parties seem to be attracting a lot of students from the Hill. On weekend nights, when the Alfond Apartments are quiet, a party is most likely happening somewhere in Waterville. Students from every class attend these parties, regardless of whether they’re of legal drinking age.

After this year’s first raid by Waterville police, we at the Echo believed that the off-campus party scene would die down for a while. The very next weekend, police followed up on another off-campus noise complaint. All the drinkers were of legal age, so the police left the house without taking further actions. This story trickled around campus; it seemed that Waterville police were coming down hard on those College partiers off-campus.

Yet this past weekend, on Friday, Oct. 1—less than two weekends after the first party raid—more College students were summonsed for underage drinking at an off-campus party on Collette Street. According to an Oct. 4 Bangor Daily News article, police said that there were no double-offenders between the two incidents.

Colby, that’s close to 70 charges in under two months. We’re barely into October! Our advice is simple: don’t go to off-campus parties if you’re underage. You could end up with a court summons, which is tedious, burdensome and also costly. Not to mention the high number of charges reflects poorly on our student body and does not bode well for Colby-Waterville relations. So stay on campus—our campus clubs and organizations work hard to ensure that there is plenty to do whether or not you choose to drink.

But let’s take this one step further. A life lesson, if you will: In order to be an informed citizen and to interact with respect and dignity with the people around you, you must pay attention to the news. If your peers are getting in trouble drinking off-campus while underage, don’t blindly go ahead and do it yourself. This attitude applies to bigger, more universal concepts, too. Don’t be a fool. Be responsible. And be a citizen of the world.

Peace. Love. Amen, The Staff of The Colby Echo