Long before college students made imbibing a competitive sport, the ancient Greeks faced off in Cottabus (also Kottabos), a Sicilian drinking game that dates back to the Greek and Etruscan symposia (drinking parties) of the 4th and 5th centuries B.C. Players would fling wine from their cups to knock over targets called plastinx.
In the 1960s, Dartmouth College fraternities gave birth to “Beer Pong,” using paddles to hit ping-pong balls into cups arranged in a triangular formation at opposite ends of a table.
In the mid-1980s, Lehigh and Bucknell University frat boys ditched the paddles and rechristened the game “Beirut” in light of the bombing of American barracks in Beirut, Lebanon.
Now, in the 21st century, elite schools are cracking down on the college pastime, as 44% of students at four-year colleges are binge drinking, according to the Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study, published in July 2008.
While college students have always reveled in the spirited competitiveness of drinking games, administrators at Tufts University, Georgetown University, and the University of Pennsylvania fear that such contests encourage players to drink too much, too quickly.
Georgetown in Washington D.C. originally barred students from possessing specially made Beer Pong tables in the Fall of 2007, but amended the rule over the summer to allow students who can drink legally to own Beer Pong tables. “That said, a student found guilty of an alcohol infraction risks a more severe punishment if a Beer Pong table is found in his or her on-campus residence,” Andy Pino, Georgetown’s Director of Media Relations, explained. “We believe alcohol games are risky and unwise, and we encourage our students to be thoughtful about how they socialize,” he added.
Tufts in Medford, MA, proscribes drinking games altogether.
“Regardless of age, these games are prohibited at Tufts,” said Marisel Perez, Associate Dean of Students at Tufts. “If we are aware that someone engaged in this activity, he/she may be subject to disciplinary action.”
The University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia also outlaws drinking games, but would not comment on how it enforces the ban––though one male sophomore, who wished to remain anonymous, observed that “Penn does not make much of an effort to enforce any sort of ban on drinking games. It seems like Beer Pong (do you guys call it ‘Beirut’ up there?) and flip-cup [another popular drinking game] are nearly as ubiquitous on campus as beer itself.”
Tufts’ taboo has not sunk in with students either as they continue to sink cups in Beer Pong, according to sophomore Jaya Birch-Desai, 19.
“Beer Pong is still prevalent in the dorms and at other sites like fraternities and sororities,” Birch-Desai explains. “I think a school can easily put a ban on drinking games, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they can’t be found.”
Georgetown sophomore Margaret Massimo, 19, also admits that she has “seen no cutbacks on Beer Pong playing, either in 21-year old + houses or within dorms” in lieu of the university’s restrictions on the game. In fact, she argues that as far as underage binge drinking goes, playing Beer Pong is one of the more innocuous social activities.
“Not only is going out to bars more expensive, it also requires twice the illegal behavior (fake IDs and underage drinking), not to mention the fact that the bar scene promotes much faster consumption of greater amounts of alcohol (pitchers, people buying rounds),” Massimo said. “Beer Pong usually divides two or three beers (and that’s only if you lose) between two people, and it takes a much longer time to drink because it’s part of a time-consuming game.”
Of course, administrators realize that students will continue to play these games, regardless of the bans. In fact, Kenyon College in Gambier, OH, repealed its ban on drinking games in 2005 because the school did not want to “drive games underground,” Shawn Presley, Kenyon’s Director of Public Affairs, told The New York Times.
According to Perez at Tufts, the university relies on its residential staff and the Tufts University Police Department to carry out the ban, as well as other alcohol-related policies, though acknowledges that “underage drinking is not easy to enforce.”
“ ‘Success’ in preventing drinking games is a relative term,” she adds. “I think education, including peer education, is most effective in addressing these issues.”
So will Hamilton College become a “No Pong Zone”?
“We have no intention of banning Beer Pong at the moment,” said Nancy Thompson, Dean of Students at Hamilton. “If it became a problem, if someone was endangered, if someone had to go to the hospital, then we’d consider it. At this point, it has not created those problems.”
