Professors, students, and drinks

American universities ought to promote social drinking parties, or 'drinks', between their students and faculty. If anything, it'll teach us how to drink socially and carry our liquor with some dignity. The rest of our lives will be marked by cocktail parties, business dinners, and family gatherings with the in-laws—all events accentuated by the sauce. Unfortunately, the product of American universities in the corporate world is the guy who hits the office Christmas party, thinks he's at a beer pong tournament, and gets completely smashed, jiving and gyrating on a makeshift dance floor in between high fives with his boss' unamused spouse.

At Oxford, the faculty recognize that students like to drink. The faculty also have enough sense to recognize that they like to drink too. And instead of regarding drinking and occasional drunkenness as taboo, they embrace it, they make use of it, they hold all sorts of parties that celebrate the setting of the academy which is, essentially, a life in which college never really ended.