2015, the year the tradition of “Frat Beach” is no longer something bright-eyed freshman can countdown to in their planners, excitedly awaiting that Friday before halloween to make the mass exodus with the rest of UGA to St. Simons Island and experience what us older students have all had the opportunity to deem potentially, the best weekend of our lives. The fact that the majority of UGA’s student population has either cancelled, or decided against even planning their trip to SSI to take part in the tradition which builds nothing but pure excitement and the spirit of a passionate rivalry before one of biggest football games of the year against Florida is sincerely disheartening. “Frat Beach,” as a hype for the trek to Jacksonville the following day is something for students who aren’t lucky enough to attend the University of Georgia to be jealous of. It’s not for Florida fans- it’s just for us. Like the hype videos that permeate throughout Facebook the week leading up to a big game, or stopping mid-sentence to partake in “calling the dawgs” with a huge mass of people, Frat Beach is something which unites the student body of UGA in the spirit of tradition and college fun.
There are those who have taken advantage of the freedom we have previously been given on the beautiful beaches of St. Simons, and unfortunately, that is why Frat Beach seems to be on it’s last leg. But a handful of disrespectful, out-of-line students do not reflect the entirety of the population who attend the event. As a sophomore, last year was my first year attending Frat Beach. As I recall, no one in my group of friends took part in the destruction of any property, littered, or disturbed the peace. We walked onto the beach, danced, laughed, made new friends, and left. I am not naive enough to believe that there were not those who left trash in the sand, had too much to drink and displayed problematic behavior, who didn’t think twice about the condition they left SSI in. I agree that it becomes a problem when such an event is hurting the livelihood of a town, and if this is the case as Glynn County officials have deemed it- but instead of punishing everybody, I believe that St. Simons should utilize the influx of students to the advantage of the town. This would create a win-win situation in which UGA would still retain our tradition, and St. Simons would in turn benefit from it.
One of the biggest problems is the condition the beach is left in after the event, and the fact that the locals are left cleaning up the mess. I’m absolutely positive that I would be sick of this too, and in order to combat this problem, I suggest an entrance fee to the beach, where the money would go to hiring a larger and more extensive clean-up crew and materials. I personally wouldn’t mind paying five dollars to get onto the beach, even ten. Charge even more and use the leftover money to do something to better the town. In 2014, the Glynn County Police Chief estimated that there were between 4,000 and 5,000 students on the beach. If there was a way in which we could make an entrance fee a donation to the island, there could potentially be $25,000 to help with the cleanup of the beach. The majority of us are broke college students who won’t shell out money for guac at Chipotle, but I’m sure for all of us who have attended Frat Beach in the past, we’d all pay even more to go back. The large inflow of college students who need to supply themselves with shelter and food for the weekend also brings likely a great amount of revenue to the businesses in St. Simons and the surrounding area that they wouldn’t normally receive in the off-season of October. Forcibly diminishing the size of frat beach would in turn greatly reduce the profit that the hundreds of restaurants, hotels, renters and other businesses have gotten used to making every Halloween weekend. I believe that this year will be a great disappointment for businesses to watch the numbers significantly decrease, and there will be regret felt by SSI for hurting the community in such a way, even if it is only a weekend of loss and wouldn’t significantly damage the economy.
The biggest problem as outlined by Glynn County officials is underage drinking on the beach and throughout St. Simons during this weekend. It would not be the worst thing to attempt to calm down the amount of underage drinking at this event, I agree that it is a problem. But I believe it should be just in the form of DUI checkpoints along the residential streets and highways connecting the biggest hotels, not checking IDs of and potentially breathalzying every student on the beach. The greatest focus of the weekend should be safety, of the students and the residents of SSI, not arresting as many kids as possible and overflowing the jails and courts by the end of the weekend. If there was more structure to the event, such as a wristband system for students 21+ in order to bring alcohol onto the beach at the entrances, I believe that many people would adhere to the rules. Instead, freshman, sophomores, and even juniors are terrified of being arrested if they dare step on the beach, in possession of alcohol or not. So have us pay to get on the beach, and have those who are of age pay extra to receive a wristband and be able to consume alcohol on the beach- and like any concert or sporting event, if there seems to be suspicious activity in the form of someone of age giving their drinks to someone underage, then confront it. Because as of now, I am under the impression that I will be confronted even if I’m not taking a drink from an older student, or acting in an unruly manner, and I’m just dancing around having fun like last year, so is it even worth it to try to get on the beach at all? Most people I've asked their opinions of the situation say no, it’s not.
These scare tactics are being utilized in the hopes that there will be a greater adherence to the law and things will eventually calm down. The letter states:
“Our ultimate goal is that these pro-enforcement measures will increase compliance with the law and create a deterrent to problematic behavior, so that the increased law enforcement presence is not needed,” the letters concludes. “We would like to continue to host football visitors in a way that reflects our values as a community for generations to come.”
It’s true that things have gotten out of control in the past, but I don’t believe the right solution is to just pull the plug on the event all of sudden for the majority of UGA students who are underage, but instead to slowly implement changes that wouldn’t merely scare the majority of frat-beach-goers away, probably for years to come, but would help morph the event into something that does reflect the values of the SSI community. If the rules are still being disregarded, tighten them even more, but don’t take it all away just because you think college kids aren’t capable of being respectful to authority in any shape or form. I’m sure many of the residents love the fact that all of UGA comes to celebrate our traditions and school spirit, and can handle the excitement for two days before life goes back to normal for all of us. Give us a chance to change our ways so that we can show freshmen how incredible it is to be a Georgia Bulldog and get to take part in such a lively and festive tradition that is Frat Beach.
