It’s hard to miss it, but in case you had, Oxford’s social life is driven by one powerful fuel: alcohol. Whether it’s a political society’s attempt at wit through an alliterative drinks and debate social, a sporting crewdate with enough debauchery to make The Wolf of Wall Street blush, or a spontaneous Spoonspedition, liquor is the lifeblood of Oxford’s social life. Driving both club nights and quiet evenings out with friends, a drink is never far from the thoughts of many students at this university.
Why does alcohol play such an important role in Oxford’s social scene? I’m not a prudish prohibitionist, but it’s a fair question to ask. British, particularly uni student drinking culture is a widely-accepted fact. Oxford adds to this with hectic 8-week schedules and heavy workloads, especially for STEM students and finalists. Given these pressures, you might imagine students steering clear of the drink, but you’d be hard pressed to find a sober face at events like Rocktails, and I’ve seen chemists chop some foul drinks.
So, why?
I think the scheduling issues mentioned earlier naturally create an avaricious appetite for a drink. When students have to be up at 6am for sports, then spend the day in labs, tutorials, lectures, or the library, often finishing late into the darkness of a winter’s evening, there’s little else to do on a student’s budget. Booking something takes time and coordination, which, unless you’re a seasoned Union hack who’s been planning to run for standing since the age of three, can be a hassle for the average Oxford student. So, bereft of other easy alternatives for catching up with friends, the pristine doors of Spoons beckon to you (and your wallet).
There’s also the enduring drinking myths of the University, relics of Oxford’s past that have outlived other forms of odd behaviour, like the Piers Gaveston society and the Bullingdon Club. Gone are those who would smash up pubs and, in the infamous case of David Cameron, require inductees to be intimate with pigs’ heads. Matriculation, collections, prelims, and finals are all followed by the consumption of copious quantities of alcohol. Again, I’d like to stress I’m not some moralising Puritan – two bottles of Sainsbury’s white saw me through matriculation. But in our eagerness to acclimatise to the bewildering bubble that is Oxford, is it possible we’ve clung to the comforting rope of tradition for too long? Since it’s the accepted norm, can anyone truly be blamed for simply jelling with the vast majority in drinking?
Oxford doesn’t exactly hide alcohol away from you. Every college has a bar, ranging from the legendary (Balliol) to the unfortunately disappointing (Oriel – a magical beer-serving hole in the wall, though funny, isn’t the vibe). With over 20 colleges boasting their own (generally affordable) bars, plus two spoons, the Union, and a range of other pubs, there’s plenty of choice for a night out. Many societies serve drinks at events as well, in conjunction with bops taking place every week across town, meaning it wouldn’t be impossible to go drinking every day in Oxford without any trouble. This range of venues on offer is great. Oxford students have a wide variety of spaces to relax in and enjoy, and going to other college bars and bops is normally fun (unless you’re going to Catz – if I wanted a pint in a tent, I’d go to a Sunday league game). But, it also presents Oxford students with a litany of locations where an otherwise healthy day can end in a few thousand calories of lager going down the hatch, whilst a friend discusses some appalling work they had to defend from a tutor. A breadth of choices means more opportunities to cave: resisting your mates’ pleas for a night out gets harder when they have a dictionary of pubs and bars they can call upon to convince you.
Clearly, most of Oxford’s students aren’t oblivious to the power of a pint. And alcohol isn’t going anywhere soon. Any notion of banning alcohol from colleges would be a misguided idea which would only make alcohol more dangerous to consume and expensive to buy. It’d represent a level of interference in student’s choices that most would, quite rightly , find absurd. If colleges and the university are unwilling to help students, why should they feel it necessary to deny students a measure with which they can relax? So, what should Oxford students do to ensure they can enjoy a night out without falling victim to an overenthusiastic bout of boozing? Shifting from spirits to lagers, stouts, or bubblier alternatives, might be an idea. It won’t stop you feeling drunk – it’ll in fact be worse – but it might slow you down compared to the speed with which a shot goes down, and the delay before it hits. Bringing along a friend who never shuts up is a good idea – there’s no time to take a sip or go to the bar when you’re being treated to a fascinating story, which they have to tell you for the fifteenth time. Trying to mix in some non-alcoholic nights is another idea. Most people in this university (excluding PPEists) have enough of a personality that their company can be enjoyed without having to reach for a bottle. With only 3-4 years here I feel as if I barely know the people I want to be friends with. Leaving the Smirnoff in your accom and opting for a chat, card game, movie night or other sober activity might allow you to forge those bonds without relying on liquor as social WD40.
This isn’t a call to stop drinking, but a suggestion to slow down and enjoy your time at Oxford. I can’t speak for everyone, but I want to make the most of this brief, bizarre time of my life. More importantly, I want to remember it.