Dear frosh,

Welcome to the Farm. You’ve sat through NSO, met your dormmates, had a week of classes and now it’s finally your first real weekend at Stanford.

In past years, you might have enjoyed an all-campus frat party on your first post-NSO Monday night, a raucous rollout by older students who used to live in your dorm on Wednesday and numerous all-campus parties this weekend.

As you may have noticed, things are different now, and you should know why.

Alcohol-related hospital transports have been rising year after year, and the University has taken an increasingly strict stance toward alcohol, going so far as to ban hard alcohol for students–even students over the age of 21–during this year’s summer session.

We remember being freshmen. And, for the most part, we remember all the stupid things we’ve done, with alcohol and without. But it’s important to understand that ultimately, when it comes to your drinking, the consequences of your actions extend far beyond yourself and your liver.

The University, your RFs, your RAs, fraternities and row houses: these people can all do everything they can to help you, for your own sake and for theirs. But in the end, it’s your responsibility to watch after yourself and know your limits–or know that you don’t know your limit and err on the side of caution.

You don’t want to be the person on the stretcher. You don’t want to be the person in the crowd, watching your roommate being carted away, wishing you had done something earlier in the night. You don’t want to be the person egging your friends on to take more shots, not knowing their tolerance or what will happen.

You have four full years left to drink, and plenty of opportunities to do so. It isn’t worth going overboard on your first night, or week, or even month at college. It will have deleterious effects on you, your dorm and our campus social scene.

This University has long granted its students a great deal of personal freedom. That freedom, however, is predicated upon our ability to use it responsibly.

So go out this weekend, hang out with friends and introduce yourself to the Stanford social scene. This is an incredibly fun, largely safe campus, and the main danger to your personal safety will be yourself. If you decide to drink, please drink responsibly. If not for your own sake, then for ours.