The Grendels of Risk Management

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Recommended: Alcohol on college campuses

The Grendels of Risk Management

Many organizations and companies create risk management policies to help prevent financial disasters and employee problems. Many fraternities and other similar organizations have employed risk management techniques to help prevent alcohol related accidents. These accidents include, but are not limited to drunk driving violations, minor in possession charges, physical injury due to intoxication, and fights. Some tactics employed by appointed risk management individuals within organizations include sober drivers during certain days of the week, sober party monitors, assessment of grievances upon violators of a predetermined risk management policy, and speakers on the dangers of alcohol. In short, risk management strives to prevent and reduce alcohol related problems.

The origins of fraternal risk management systems can be traced back to the Anglo-Saxon text of Beowulf. Beowulf, a Geat, arrives among the Danes to destroy a beast known as Grendel. Grendel was really a euphemism for alcoholism that turned to fratricide. The berserker warriors of the Danish nation were revered during times of war. However, during times of peace they had no other skills to practice. Their peacetime activities consisted of heavy drinking with the loosely organized band of soldiers and king known as the commitatus. After excessive drinking, the berserker warriors often turned violent and slaughtered ‘brothers’ from their community. Due to the overall intoxication of the group, no one remembered the violence of the previous night. It was as if a mysterious monster had struck when everyone was asleep.

Many modern alcohol education programs refer to alcoholism as a ‘monster of a disease’. Beowulf’s job as an outsider...

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...e mother from Mothers Against Drunk Driving (M.A.D.D.) claimed that fraternities’ risk management programs were ‘double-edged swords’. She explained that risk management prevented many people within the fraternity from driving drunk and helped educate members of the dangers of alcohol abuse. On the other hand, she also believed that many people never drove drunk only because the risk management system was in place. When individuals with unrecognized alcohol problems left the fraternity, their drinking problem would only worsen. The afflicted individuals may later to decide to drive drunk and develop and abusive drinking regimen. This mother seemed to believe the only way to prevent alcohol related incidents was to not support alcohol related social events. No fraternity or sorority has yet to offer and implement a solution that has proven to be completely effective.

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