Dartmouth Banning Hard Alcohol From Campus

[IIOY]

From today's WSJ.  I had to bold one paragraph because it raised my eyebrows for multiple reasons:

Dartmouth College is banning hard alcohol from its campus and putting its notoriously rowdy fraternities on notice that they need to reform or disband, in the latest move by an elite school to crack down on a party culture that has been closely tied to sexual assault.



Dartmouth President Philip J. Hanlon on Thursday delivered a speech to faculty and students in which he laid out his plan to deal with a rising tide of complaints that have tarnished the reputation of the New Hampshire school, which has 4,289 undergraduates and weighed on new applications at a time when most Ivy League schools are soaring in popularity.



“There are high stakes for Dartmouth,” Mr. Hanlon said in an interview Tuesday. “This is a small, intimate place—so when a student harms another student or themselves, it really tears this place apart.”



Casey Dennis, a senior and the student body president, said even though hard alcohol is a problem on campus, especially among freshmen in the dorms, he was a little concerned about how the ban would be implemented because “hard alcohol is usually kept in private places.”



Earlier this month, Brown University banned booze in fraternities and announced plans for a comprehensive review of its alcohol policy this spring as part of the school’s “intensified efforts to prevent and address sexual assault.”



The University of Virginia this month restricted hard alcohol at fraternity parties following a Rolling Stone article about a gang rape at a fraternity party. The article later was discredited.



And at the start of this academic year Swarthmore College banned hard alcohol from campus events, as well as drinking games and drinking paraphernalia in an effort to create “a comfortable and coercion-free atmosphere,” according to the school.



Nationally, 1,825 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die each year from alcohol-related unintentional injuries and 97,000 students are victims of alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.


Once dominated by wealthy white men, the student bodies at colleges and universities nationwide are now nearly 60% female and 40% nonwhite, and some students believe institutional norms haven't kept pace with the changing demographics.



The failure of schools to properly handle sexual assault investigations began to surface about four years ago after the Obama administration issued aggressive new guidance on how schools should handle sexual violence under Title IX, which prohibits gender discrimination and mandates that schools are responsible to handle cases in a “prompt and equitable” manner.



The Justice Department is currently investigating nearly 100 schools—including some of the nation’s most prestigious—for improperly handling complaints.



Dartmouth’s fraternity row has long been associated with the bawdy culture that is now the focus of attention. Fraternity brothers and alumni say the clubs are a source of pride, as well as academic and social support, during and after college.



Nationally, membership in fraternities and sororities is at record levels.



For decades, faculty requests to close fraternities and rein in the drinking culture at Dartmouth went unheeded. They took on added gravity, however, when a series of sexual assaults preceded a 14% drop in applications two years ago.



Last April, Mr. Hanlon said “enough was enough” and created a task force to oversee changes.



“Move Dartmouth Forward,” is his 6-page plan that contains a series of directives largely absent of detail. It calls for a four-year sexual violence prevention education program and a “consent manual,” which is to include “realistic scenarios and potential sanctions to reduce ambiguity about what is and what is not acceptable.”



The mandate echoes a California law passed in September when it became the first state to enact a so-called yes-means-yes rule during consensual sexual activity. The law calls for “affirmative, conscious and voluntary agreement to engage in sexual activity” that is “ongoing through a sexual activity and can be revoked at any time.”



The plan also requires bouncers and bartenders to be present at social events and calls for the creation of a code of conduct that will outline student behavior to classmates, including civility, dignity and diversity. The hard alcohol ban, which targets liquor that is 30 proof or higher, is set to go into effect on March 30.



Moreover, all residential student organizations will be required to undergo an annual review to demonstrate they are promoting inclusivity.



“If in the next three to five years, the Greek system does not engage in meaningful, lasting reform, and we are unsuccessful in sharply curbing harmful behaviors, we will need to revisit its continuation on our campus,” Mr. Hanlon said.



Mr. Dennis, the student body president, said: “Dartmouth has taken several punches and there have been a few periods of unease and tension on campus in the last couple of years so I think some sort of change needed to happen.”

[penguingrrl]

That sounds difficult to enforcer, but it also sounds like the measures are necessary.

As a side note, are Greek houses usually actually on campus? At the two colleges I attended they were right near campus but not in campus and the school had little jurisdiction over what went on.

[darthnbjenni]

Jan 30, 2015 8:09:41 GMT -5 penguingrrl said:

That sounds difficult to enforcer, but it also sounds like the measures are necessary.

As a side note, are Greek houses usually actually on campus? At the two colleges I attended they were right near campus but not in campus and the school had little jurisdiction over what went on.

At Clemson in SC, all sorority houses were on campus, and all fraternities were off campus. Something about archaic local laws saying that groups of women all living in one house can not exist because they could be considered "houses of ill repute". 

[shauni27]

I grew up in and around Hanover, NH and work there still today. It is well known among the community that the fraternities are gross, disgusting, kind of horrific places--all sorts of alcohol related injuries and assaults. I love the idea of this policy, but think there will be quite a bit of push-back from students and alumni and like someone else said, it does seem really tough to enforce. But I am in full support of starting to change the culture of the frats on campus here at Dartmouth.

I am so glad the new president is taking this stance, it has been ignored by the higher ups and students for far too long here.

[irishbride2]

Jan 30, 2015 8:09:41 GMT -5 penguingrrl said:

That sounds difficult to enforcer, but it also sounds like the measures are necessary.

As a side note, are Greek houses usually actually on campus? At the two colleges I attended they were right near campus but not in campus and the school had little jurisdiction over what went on.

My University did this. Some kids obviously still had hard alcohol but for the most part people abandoned it and stuck to beer and box wine lol. They basically ignored on campus under aged drinking as long as it wasn't hard alcohol and no one got sick and it worked pretty well. 

[cattledogkisses]

So sexual assualts weren't an issue worthy of attention until they started impacting enrollment. Got it.  ^o)

[dirtyred]

Jan 30, 2015 8:09:41 GMT -5 penguingrrl said:

That sounds difficult to enforcer, but it also sounds like the measures are necessary.

As a side note, are Greek houses usually actually on campus? At the two colleges I attended they were right near campus but not in campus and the school had little jurisdiction over what went on.

At Northwestern, all Greek houses are on campus.

[penguingrrl]

Jan 30, 2015 8:30:23 GMT -5 irishbride2 said:

Jan 30, 2015 8:09:41 GMT -5 penguingrrl said:

That sounds difficult to enforcer, but it also sounds like the measures are necessary.

As a side note, are Greek houses usually actually on campus? At the two colleges I attended they were right near campus but not in campus and the school had little jurisdiction over what went on.

My University did this. Some kids obviously still had hard alcohol but for the most part people abandoned it and stuck to beer and box wine lol. They basically ignored on campus under aged drinking as long as it wasn't hard alcohol and no one got sick and it worked pretty well. 

That's interesting. I think off-campus drinking was so prevalent at my school that rules like that would be useless. But I can see how for a campus that doesn't have off-campus housing within a very short walk it would work and prevent the same level of over indulgence.

[penguingrrl]

Jan 30, 2015 8:16:01 GMT -5 darthnbjenni said:

Jan 30, 2015 8:09:41 GMT -5 penguingrrl said:

That sounds difficult to enforcer, but it also sounds like the measures are necessary.

As a side note, are Greek houses usually actually on campus? At the two colleges I attended they were right near campus but not in campus and the school had little jurisdiction over what went on.

At Clemson in SC, all sorority houses were on campus, and all fraternities were off campus. Something about archaic local laws saying that groups of women all living in one house can not exist because they could be considered "houses of ill repute". 

Ah yes, I've heard of laws like that! Freaking ridiculous!

[irishbride2]

Jan 30, 2015 8:51:18 GMT -5 penguingrrl said:

Jan 30, 2015 8:30:23 GMT -5 irishbride2 said:

My University did this. Some kids obviously still had hard alcohol but for the most part people abandoned it and stuck to beer and box wine lol. They basically ignored on campus under aged drinking as long as it wasn't hard alcohol and no one got sick and it worked pretty well. 

That's interesting. I think off-campus drinking was so prevalent at my school that rules like that would be useless. But I can see how for a campus that doesn't have off-campus housing within a very short walk it would work and prevent the same level of over indulgence.

Their goal was to keep as much on campus as possible to keep people safe. It worked fairly well (although my Freshman year we had a fellow freshmen get drunk off campus and drown in a river). 

[penguingrrl]

Jan 30, 2015 8:53:11 GMT -5 irishbride2 said:

Jan 30, 2015 8:51:18 GMT -5 penguingrrl said:

That's interesting. I think off-campus drinking was so prevalent at my school that rules like that would be useless. But I can see how for a campus that doesn't have off-campus housing within a very short walk it would work and prevent the same level of over indulgence.

Their goal was to keep as much on campus as possible to keep people safe. It worked fairly well (although my Freshman year we had a fellow freshmen get drunk off campus and drown in a river). 

That makes a lot of sense! Rutgers was in the middle of a large downtown area and did not have enough housing for all of its students, so many moved to just off campus and that was where the parties moved. 

I will say that the few times I went out on frat row (like, 3 times my first year and never again lol) there were New Brunswick police all over the place. They weren't arresting or ticketing anyone for just drinking or even carrying solo cups from house to house, but keeping an eye out for anyone who looked like they were getting sick or rowdy. I was impressed with how they handled it.

[btdt]

Jan 30, 2015 8:16:01 GMT -5 darthnbjenni said:

Jan 30, 2015 8:09:41 GMT -5 penguingrrl said:

That sounds difficult to enforcer, but it also sounds like the measures are necessary.

As a side note, are Greek houses usually actually on campus? At the two colleges I attended they were right near campus but not in campus and the school had little jurisdiction over what went on.

At Clemson in SC, all sorority houses were on campus, and all fraternities were off campus. Something about archaic local laws saying that groups of women all living in one house can not exist because they could be considered "houses of ill repute". 

This was not always the case. When I went to Clemson, most of the frat houses were on campus, in the Quad. Has that changed? 

As to Dartmouth banning hard alcohol, yeah, right that's going to help the problem. Like no frat boy EVER has gotten drunk off of beer.

[charminglife]

I have to give Dartmouth credit for trying something that doesn't place an undue burden on one gender (coughUVAcough). Yes, you can still get drunk with beer and wine, but it's harder (chugging five beers in a row vs. a few gulps from a bacardi bottle.)

We'll see how well this is enforced after year or so. I wonder if there will be any alumni backlash.

[darthnbjenni]

Jan 30, 2015 9:29:36 GMT -5 btdt said:

Jan 30, 2015 8:16:01 GMT -5 darthnbjenni said:

At Clemson in SC, all sorority houses were on campus, and all fraternities were off campus. Something about archaic local laws saying that groups of women all living in one house can not exist because they could be considered "houses of ill repute". 

This was not always the case. When I went to Clemson, most of the frat houses were on campus, in the Quad. Has that changed? 

As to Dartmouth banning hard alcohol, yeah, right that's going to help the problem. Like no frat boy EVER has gotten drunk off of beer.

Derp, you're right. I was always waaay on the other side (Lightsey Bridge) and never over on that side unless I had to be for class, ha. I was thinking of DX, PKA, and a few others that were off campus. 

[msmerymac]

My husband's frat was actually shut down within the past decade because of gross stuff, but only given a 5 year ban, and I think they were reinstated a few years ago.

It would be laughable how much the Old Boys Club still controls that place if it wasn't so sad. Especially for anyone who isn't a white male.

[msmerymac]

Thankfully the alumni from pre-1975 should be dying off sooner or later.

They know they have a problem. They also have an endowment and donations to consider.