In the end, Northern Kentucky University’s Student Government Association made the right call by passing the hockey shuttle resolution.

In days of the Roman Empire, it was gladiators who filled stadiums with blood-thirsty onlookers. Today, the American sport of choice is football, but Northern Kentucky University doesn’t have a football team, leaving the Norse Bloodlust unsatisfied.

Hockey, however, would probably be the one mainstream American sport that a considerable segment of the population would find more violent than football. Hey, it’s not bad to watch either. Even if you don’t know the rules– it’s a great adrenaline rush to get into a hockey game.

A graduate school implant onto NKU’s campus, my previous university’s club-hockey games were a large draw for club sports, left a heightened sense of university comradery and most of all, acted as yet another way for the university to continue to market itself.

By busing students to the game, NKU’s SGA has shown that it takes the safety and well-being of all students into consideration. I can understand the frustrations of students who feel as though they’re paying for “drunks to ride to hockey games”, however, the overall good provided by this service cannot be unmentioned. Students are at NKU of their own free will, and there are plenty of clubs or activities at NKU that everyone pays for, but few actually use. For instance, I’m not a member of the NKU Honor’s Society, an ethnic student union, or a sexual interest organization, etc., but I realize that they directly and indirectly have an influence on everyone in the university and should be supported through university budgeting.

I’d also like to applaud SGA for acting rationally when coming to this decision. Instead of running from the problem, SGA acknowledged that it’d be better to risk someone riding a bus while intoxicated than the risk that students would drive to the game impaired or not attend at all. Only six days after my 17th birthday, I became the victim of a drunken driving accident when a car driven by a drunken driver attempted to cut across two lanes of traffic to evade a police officer before striking the front quarter-panel of my stopped car, while traveling approximately 35 miles per hour. Only then did I understand the consequences of those driving impaired: it not only affects the drivers, but everyone else as well.

If other students like to get drunk and go to hockey games, I’d rather have them bussed there than employing other means of transportation.

As for all of you students who plan on drinking before hockey games (not that anyone in college drinks, or drinking is a part of college culture anyway); If you’re over 21 and choose to drink, be responsible and get a sober ride both there and back.