The LifeLine program, which debuted this past weekend, may sound like a lifesaver for stranded drunk students without a ride home, but that convenience is outweighed by the fact that it rewards irresponsibility.

Distribution of LifeLine cards to the entire campus is continuing this week, and once people have a card, they will be able to call a toll-free number for a free cab ride in an emergency.

It sounds generous, but it is tacitly providing an incentive to drink irresponsibly.

By instituting this program, student government is giving a wink and a nod to people headed out to parties and bars without a plan to get home.

Supposedly, it's only for use in emergencies, and people are only allowed to use it to get home, to a police station or to a hospital. But there's no limit to the number of times someone can use a card.

That means people don't even have to discriminate between an emergency and an inconvenience. Their "emergency" could be that they are too lazy or cheap to look for a ride home or fork over cab fare.

Students who are willing to spend money getting drunk ought to spend their own money paying for a cab.

The program is not that expensive: Student government was only responsible for paying $2,700 in startup expenses ÷ money that came from student fees.

Now that LifeLine is up and running, though, it is self-supporting, paying for itself through advertising on the cards.

So the major issue here is more than the cost: The issue is that this program is rewarding irresponsibility among college students ÷ people not exactly known for their temperance.

For years, ASUA has kept its SafeRide shuttle service inoperable on weekends precisely so it wouldn't become a shuttle for drunks. Now, in an astonishing show of dissonance, they are supporting a program that is exactly that.