Dri night's coverage does not whet the appetite

I suspect that I was not the only person disappointed to read the news article “Lesson Learnt: Never go in Dri” in last week’s issue (Felix 1584). This awful pun aside, I felt that the article unfortunately misrepresented and undermined Imperial College Union’s ‘Dri’ night, its first ever alcohol-free club night. The event was aimed at students who, for various reasons, don’t drink, and might not feel comfortable with one of the Union’s typical boozy nights. This includes students under the age of 18 who cannot attend Union events at which alcohol is served, or even enter Union bars, due to licensing restrictions. These students are socially marginalized and excluded from most of the fun of Freshers’ Week events and are not able to make use of the social hub that is the Union bars.

Dri night provided an opportunity for this group to access some of the facilities that the rest of us take for granted, an opportunity that around a hundred people, many of whom will have been under 18, took advantage of and presumably enjoyed. In this respect the event was a success.

The article puts forward the contention that Dri night was some sort of Union ghost town experience, with tumbleweed rolling across the sticky floors of Metric and FiveSixEight. However, with attendance in three figures this can’t have been the quietest Monday night that the Union has seen this term, and seasoned veterans will all be able to remember nights in the Union bars when everyone present would have been able to fit into a cab.

Quoting a dubious “anonymous Union source” with criticisms of the event, and ambiguously presenting a photo of the inside of Metric not taken at the event (captioned as an ‘artist’s impression’ on page 7, but left uncaptioned on the front cover), doesn’t seem to be a fair representation of the night. They didn’t seem to ask any people who were there if they enjoyed themselves either, which might have given a more accurate view of the event.

Providing events for non-drinkers, and especially under-18s, is a worthy goal. Indeed it was one of Chris Kaye’s (this year’s Deputy President (Welfare)) manifesto pledges.

This kind of unreasonable attack on an event that benefited students prejudices the Imperial community against any other events that seek to include those who can’t, don’t or won’t drink, and negatively impacts on their ability to interact with other students and have a good time.