For this edition of Prefrosh Preview, we’ll be tackling various vices you might be interested in engaging in during college: drinking, drugs, sex and smoking. As a disclaimer, Vox isn’t advocating underage drinking or the use of illegal drugs, and most of this information comes from outside sources, not firsthand experience.

Drinking

Despite what some tour guides reassured your parents, drinking is a sizeable part of social life at Georgetown for many people. If you look for a party on the weekend, you will always find one.

During New Student Orientation, many freshmen will wander the neighborhood in packs listening for noise that might signal a party. We advise freshmen who find parties to avoid inviting their entire floor or drinking everything as soon as they can.

If you’re over 21 (or have an ID that says you are) and prefer bars, here are some of the more popular nearby options:

• Chadwicks (3205 K Street): Good happy hours and champagne brunches.
• Epicurean (On campus, under Darnall): Offers karaoke, and is usually occupied with doctors from the hospital.
• Old Glory (3139 M Street): Strong drinks, good barbecue; the covered back porch with a bar makes it convenient for smokers.
• Rhino (3295 M Street): Sketchy, but good wings and a good chance of spotting Real World cast members or Kobe Bryant.
• Rugby (1065 Wisconsin Ave): As part of a Ralph Lauren store, very, very preppy.
• Third Edition (1218 Wisconsin Ave): Relatively cheap, lots of dancing; famous for having its exterior used in St. Elmo’s Fire.
• Tombs (1226 36th Street): The closest bar to campus and filled with students, but also the strictest with IDs.

How strict a given bar is with accepting fake IDs varies from bouncer to bouncer. Last spring, a number of fake IDs were taken from Third Edition, so be aware that it could happen to you. Generally, Vox would discourage you from trying your fake at Third Edition or Tombs.

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Students wondering what a revamped Healy Pub open to under-21s could look like might take a look at what Massachusetts’ College of the Holy Cross has done with theirs.

The Holy Cross Crusader reports that the college’s Student Government Association and administration have worked to open the pub to students over 18 as part of an effort to provide more weekend programming on-campus.

Georgetown introduced comprehensive drinking rules in 1987 to bring University policies in line with DC’s new drinking age laws. As a result, campus administrators forced Healy Pub to institute dry nights for non-drinking freshmen, which helped push the pub towards bankruptcy.

Under the new rules at the Holy Cross pub, students and guests over the age of 18 will now be permitted to enter the pub on weekend nights. Drinking ages will be enforced by issuing wristbands and a stamp to those underage in the pub.

The article states that college officials will evaluate the changes based on their cost effectiveness and how well students’ needs are met.

According to the Worcester Telegram, the changes come in response to rising tensions between students and members of the surrounding community last fall. The college and city ultimately struck an agreement for the college to address “quality of life” issues on campus.

Below, we’ve republished Juliana Brint’s August 2009 post about “all the various vices you might be interested in engaging in during college: drinking, drugs, sex and smoking.” And here’s our disclaimer: Vox isn’t endorsing any of these activities. (And most of the advice and information came from outside sources.)

Alcohol

Georgetown is definitely a drinking school, and on weekends you can almost always find a party somewhere on or near campus. When going out, there’s no quicker way to be identified as a somewhat obnoxious freshman than to travel with the entirety of your floor. It’s also seen as particularly poor form to crash a party, drain the booze and leave.

At Georgetown, people generally don’t charge guests admittance to parties (a fact that will doubtlessly shock your friends who visit). However, if you find kindly upperclassmen who frequently supply you with liquor, it’s generally a good idea to reimburse them.

If you’re over 21 (or have an ID that says you are) and prefer bars, you have plenty of nearby options. Here’s the run-down:

• Chadwicks (3205 K Street): Good happy hours and champagne brunches.
• Epicurean (On campus, under Darnall): Offers karaoke, and you really can’t beat it for convenience.
• Old Glory (3139 M Street): Strong drinks; the covered back porch with a bar makes it convenient for smokers.
• Rhino (3295 M Street): Sketchy and crowded on weekends, but sells good wings
• Smith Point (1338 Wisconsin Avenue): Bastion of prep that prides itself on having a guest list; Late Night Shots central.
• Third Edition (1218 Wisconsin Ave): Relatively cheap; famous for having its exterior used in St. Elmo’s Fire.
• Tombs (1226 36th Street): The closest bar to campus and almost exclusively for students, but also the strictest with IDs.

How strict a given bar is with accepting fake IDs varies from bouncer to bouncer, but generally avoid trying your fake at Smith Point, Third Edition and Tombs.

If you’re looking to procure your own spirits, the best bets are Towne (1326 Wisconsin Avenue), Wagner’s (1717 Wisconsin Avenue) and Dixie (3429 M Street; but don’t even think about using a fake at Dixie). Wisey‘s also sells beer and wine.

If you’re tired of jostling at the bar for a watered-down rum and coke or an overpriced draft beer, Booey’s is also a good bet. Its pitchers are among the cheapest around, and it is open until midnight.
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When we think about Senior Dis-Orientation, we don’t typically think about its theme. (We usually think about the free alcohol we’re going to drink, and then, the massive hangovers we’ll have the mornings after.)

But because we care about you—and you might want to know—we contacted SCC Chairman Andrew Malzberg (COL ’11) and SCC Events Chair Kristie Xian (COL ’11) to tell us more about Dis-O’s “Viva Las Hoyas” theme.

Why they chose “Viva Las Hoyas” as this year’s Dis-O theme:

[W]e want Seniors to approach their last year on the Hilltop as if they were spending the week in Vegas–they should live it up! At this time of the year, many seniors become preoccupied with graduate school applications, job interviews, and thesis writing. They forget to take advantage of everything Georgetown University and the D.C. community has to offer … “What Happens on the Hilltop Stays on the Hilltop” [will remind] seniors to live their last year in college to the fullest instead of getting bogged down by the stress of the future. After all, we’re only young once.

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Last night’s Advisory Neighborhood meeting was pretty long for my taste. Discussion included streetcars and the ANC’s preference for having them built without overhead wires and without dedicating an entire lane of traffic to their operation—but aside from that, (and streetcars aren’t even coming to Georgetown until after an environmental review that will start in 2012 or 2013) there wasn’t much more to it, as far as Georgetown students are concerned, than extended bar and restaurant hours and public safety improvements. Here’s the wrap:

Dining in the wee small hours of the morning

What’s that old saying? When the mice are away, the Advisory Neighborhood Catmissioners will unanimously pass a resolution that allows every bar in Georgetown to seek permission to start serving alcohol at 8 a.m. Monday through Saturday for the entire month that the FIFA World Cup is taking place, with less than five minutes of discussion … and will play?

Something like that. But that’s pretty long for an aphorism, so let me break it down a little further.

At last night’s ANC meeting, commissioners responded to a bill passed by the D.C. City Council that will allow D.C. bars to seek exemptions to open at 7 a.m. from June 11 – July 11 for the World Cup.

Bars still need permission from their respective ANCs to seek an exemption from the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration, however, and Vox‘s guess is that if Georgetown University was still chock full of students, this would have been a serious issue.

But like we said, there was only about five minutes of mild discussion. Under D.C. law, bars can start serving at 8 a.m. Monday through Saturday and at 10 a.m. on Sunday, but few Georgetown bars are actually licensed to open that early. The ANC resolution will not only allow bars to seek exemptions from ABRA  to open at 7 a.m. but also to serve alcohol during the revised hours for the entire month of the World Cup, provided they serve food and open their outdoor seating areas at their normal hours only. (In one of our favorite parts of the meeting, commissioners wondered why bars had to open so early for the World Cup. Student Commissioner Aaron Golds (COL ’11) explained that it’s because the World Cup was being held in South Africa this year).

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So, maybe Georgetown students aren’t drunk all of the time.

In recent days, both the University and students have responded to “Drunken Georgetown Students,” the website that’s fueled rampant procrastination all week long.

In an e-mail statement, Director of Media Relations Andy Pino wrote, “[The University does] not believe the site is a constructive attempt  to improve safety or quality of life issues in our community, and we believe it runs contrary to the collaborative efforts we’ve engaged in with many of our neighbors.”

Meanwhile, students have launched websites and Facebook groups that lampoon Stephen R. Brown, the Burleith resident who runs “Drunken Georgetown Students.”

One student, who declined to be named, even made a video titled “Fun with Stephen Brown.”

“I just wanted to comment on Mr. Brown’s godawful blog while standing up for my fellow constantly intoxicated Georgetown students,” the student said in an e-mail.

Vox has also learned that Brown has been photographing student parties since last summer.

After the jump, hear from some of the students who Brown has photographed.

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Drunkengeorgetownstudents.com, the website every Georgetown student loves to hate, was taken offline these evening by server host Heller Information Services (HIS), only to reappear hours later at drunkengeorgetownstudents.blogspot.com.

“I was pressured by the server to take [the site] down,” Stephen R. Brown, the Burleith resident who runs the site, said in a telephone interview. “I was told that at 7 p.m. tonight they would shut it down and they did.”

In coverage earlier today, Vox reported that HIS requested in an e-mail that Brown “either remove the pix or blur the faces” because the photographs violated the server’s Acceptable Use Policy.

Before the original site went offline, Brown put out a call for residents’ photos of Georgetown students. “If you can get some pictures without confronting the offenders, please do so and we’ll being posting as soon as I find a more aggressive server who’s up for a 1st Amendment lawsuit,” Brown wrote.

Brown claims that Blogspot edition of his site “is totally legit.”

On the latest post, he doesn’t waste any time to beat his chest a bit, while making some bizarre claims about his life and the success of the site.

“I am one of the few people in the world who is ‘persona non grata’ in the State of Israel and proud of it!!! So if you don’t like this site, tell it to God (or in this case, [Google CEO] Eric Schmidt)” Brown wrote in his latest post. “I am getting requests for footage from ‘Inside Edition’ so …thanks…and welcome to ‘Drunken Georgetown Students’!”

“I apologize to students who are doing a great job at Georgetown University and doing something,” Brown said. “But those drunks in my alley—fuck ‘em.”

After the jump, read Brown’s latest rants:

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Heller Information Services (HIS), the server operator behind the website “Drunken Georgetown Students,” has asked Stephen R. Brown, the Burleith resident who runs the site, to “either remove the pix or blur the faces,” according to an e-mail posted by Brown.

Yesterday, Vox reported that Brown has been publishing photographs of Georgetown students on his website, www.drunkengeorgetownstudents.com. But, a visit to the site earlier today revealed that Brown has blurred out the faces of all persons in photographs published on the site.

That’s not to say that Brown censored his site willingly, however. At the top of the site, Brown posted a missive about how “[his] first amendment right to photograph has been usurped by the Universtiy.”

According to the excerpted e-mail written by an HIS representative, “[Brown's] site has stirred up quite a hornet’s nest, and [HIS] received several dozen complaints about the photographs … We’ve looked at the pix, and whether or not there are any legal issues with them, in our opinion they do meet our criteria for harassment mentioned in our [Acceptable Use Policy.]”

According to the HIS Acceptable Use Policy, clients are prohibited from “[using] the service for illegal purposes,” “[using] the service in such a way as to cause harm to HIS or other parts of the internet,” or “[using] the service to abuse or harrass others.”

After the jump, read Stephen Brown’s response to the HIS e-mail, as well as the excerpted e-mail Brown posted on his website.

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Be wary the next time you head out to an off-campus party—you just might end up on “Drunken Georgetown Students,” a website run by a Burleith resident which publishes photographs and written accounts of off-campus student life.

The site, which dubs Georgetown “AN EAST COAST PARTY SCHOOL,” is run by neighbor and former American University professor Stephen R. Brown. Besides being a place for him to make bizarre claims like, “Unfortunately if two students hadn’t died on campus this year in alcohol related students (and who knows how many more that are ‘in official denial’, it might be amusing,” he makes as suggestions on the site about how Georgetown and Burleith residents can best report student disturbances.

In an interview this afternoon, Brown, a Villanova graduate, said, “I live across from six student houses and two young professional houses. I document what happens in the alley … I report everything to the police that is put on the blog … [The site] is just an attempt to make sure that the University is aware that there’s trouble.”

In addition to publishing photographs of students, Brown also posts residents’ accounts of student activity off-campus.

“I don’t consult with [the students who I photograph.] I’m doing what I’m doing … I have the First Amendment right to photograph whatever is going on,” he claimed.

While the only photographs currently posted to the site are his own, Brown hopes to post other residents’ photographs of students in the future.

“I might run a contest. I was thinking of having a drunken Georgetown student photo contest,” Brown said. “Maybe we could have a urination category.”

After the jump, check out some excerpts Vox plucked from Brown’s site.

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Oh, Georgetown Day. It’s a time for sunshine, carnival rides, and of course, rampant drinking—until now.

“Georgetown Day Event Policies,” a list of rules outlining some no-no’s, was posted on the Georgetown Day website last night. (The document is available to download here.) And as much as it pains Vox‘s heart to say it, it seems that the University is finally clamping down on the alcoholic tendencies that make up the fiber and being of Georgetown Day for many students.

While most of the GU Day policies are re-treads of current Student Code of Conduct policies, such as “Unauthorized alcoholic beverages are not permitted at the event,” and “Any alcoholic beverages and/or coolers found in the public event space may be confiscated,” other event policies are completely new additions.

“We were thoughtful about the sanctions, considering the fact that the event is close to the end of the year,” Associate Vice President of Student Affairs Jeanne Lord said on Monday night.

Most notably under these policies, underage students caught drinking in any “Georgetown Day public event spaces” will face a tough choice: Pay a $50 fine, or spend two hours “volunteering” for Georgetown Day clean up. If a student chooses the latter, he’ll be expected to check in at the Volunteer Table promptly at 5 p.m.

Additionally, the event policies state, “DPS officers have the right to inspect personal belongings such as backpacks in the event area if they suspect individuals of bringing alcohol to the event.”

For a price, those over 21 won’t have it too badly. From 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., a concession area will be open for all of-age persons to knock back a few beers—so long one doesn’t balk at the $10 admission. (The fee, which will help support Georgetown’s Haiti Relief and Recovery efforts, gets bumped to $15 without a GO Card.) So, what do you get for the price of admission?

“[Each] paid guest will receive a reusable cup,” according to the event policies.

Image by @KingGeorgetown, who might be a bit distraught when he reads this post.