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Underage drinking in Oxford, Ohio, has Butler County officials contemplating a clampdown.

The Butler County Prosecutor Mike Gmoser has proposed to impose a policy to force anyone having a party with alcohol involving 10 or more people to apply for a “party permit.”

“This is just an idea; [there is] no timeline,” Gmoser said. “The good thing about the idea is it has gotten people to talk about the problem.”

The policy would only be for the Oxford community — the home to Miami University — and would face plenty of legal questions,
Gmoser said.

“This idea would face a slew of legislative questions, involving freedom of assembly and other rights,” Gmoser said. “[But] the idea is workable.”

The policy is a proposed deterrent against rowdy behavior and sexual assaults on the campus, Gmoser said.

In May of last year, the Pi Beta Phi sorority received a one-year suspension and the Alpha Xi Delta’s sorority received a two-year suspension after the sororities’ events — both off campus — were ridden with intoxicated vomiting.

“Alcohol should not be a rite of passage to adulthood,” Gmoser said. “Every Friday and Saturday night, we see in the reports an unconscious girl was raped or some intoxicated person walked in front of a train or car, or some student ends up in the emergency room as a result of alcohol consumption.”

Miami University Police already have strict enforcement of underage drinking laws, but are limited by campus jurisdictions.

“Most parties happen off campus, and often students will drink at bars or other locations which our police force does not have jurisdiction over,” said Lt. Ben Spilman of the MU police.

The force has taken an education and enforcement approach toward underage drinking, Spilman said.

“MU freshmen must take an alcohol education class, it is required to register for future classes,” Spilman said. “University police inform students and we strictly enforce the Ohio alcohol laws.”

Such a permit has caused mix reactions among MU students.

“It will cause less house parties, but will result in more students leaving town or going to bars,” said Katie Cole, a fourth-year early childhood education student at MU. “Students will go into bars and just wash off markers.”

Cole said she felt local television media has been portraying MU students wrongly by showing pictures of Green Beer Day — a party which takes place three days before MU’s spring break — while referring to MU’s underage drinking problem.