I don’t know if you’ve heard, but a good percentage of our campus is sufficient in the language of Jell-O shots and keg stands.

On the 2012 Princeton Review Party School List, we’re No. 11. There’s never a weekend where Murphy’s, Cly’s and Firehaus aren’t packed. And recently, the Midwest has been ranked a heavy binge-drinking region, something that, some days, I feel we personally contribute to.

Of course, the drinking culture isn’t so extreme that you become a social outcast if you’re not knocking down Keystone on a Friday night. But we can’t pretend that we as a school aren’t heavy drinkers: For crying out loud, we have a holiday dedicated to wearing green and getting wasted.

So, in a weird way, it kind of makes sense that one of the resolutions the Illinois Student Senate, or the ISS, is trying to pass is a change to the student code so it states students won’t be punished in case of an alcohol-related medical emergency.

This isn’t your quaint resolution about adding an extra sidewalk on the Quad. ISS is trying to issue a big one, one that could change the makeup of how we as a campus view drinking and alcohol poisoning.

Now, keep in mind that ISS isn’t inventing the idea of this kind of amnesty. Actually, the University and Urbana police currently do not ticket any students who call because of alcohol-related problems. The resolution is just to make it clear to students that they don’t have to worry about University punishment if they ever see a friend suffering from alcohol poisoning.

At a glance, this resolution may seem like a ploy to reward underage drinkers on campus. After all, it is requesting a formal, written amendment that states that students can get drunk up to the point of inebriation and then call the police like a “get out of jail free” card. Think of all the shenanigans that could occur. The horrors, David Pileski, how could you?!

But no matter your stance on drinking, you need to see how the resolution could help students. Victims of sexual assault who were underage drinking would know they could report rape. Students would know they don’t have to choose between leaving their friends drunkenly be or calling for help.

Besides, the amnesty law doesn’t completely allow students to run drunk and free. According to the Daily Illini article “ISS may add medical amnesty to student code,” students who use the “Good Samaritan” policy more than once may be “subject to disciplinary ramifications.”

In all honestly, I’m a little surprised that the University is just choosing to get this down in writing now. Like Pileski said, this isn’t for students to get out of control. This isn’t a sounding board for raging alcoholics. This is for safety.

As responsible young adults, we most definitely need to take control of our actions. We should know what our body can and can’t do, and we should know that we’re not immortal. If our brain is telling us to cool it on the tequila shots, we should have enough common sense to obey.

However, at the risk of sounding too forgiving to underage and heavy drinkers, we are only human. Mistakes are made. And if those mistakes produce alcohol poisoning or sexual assault, no one should feel like they shouldn’t get help because of a slap on the wrist.

Whether we’ve never drunk a sip of alcohol in our lives or are already ordering T-shirts to celebrate Unofficial, we all have the right to be equally protected.

Tolu is a junior in Media.