Dartmouth to ban all hard alcohol on campus

[Anonymous]

i wonder what d's policy on pot on campus is.

I'm not going to name the school but my baby sister was a dealer at a very elite slac and it was funny that public drunkeness or alcohol on campus was automatically referred to public safety/cops but being caught with 2 oz's of pot on campus by campus officials was just an internal referral to the dean, who would just tell my sister 'come on, you are better than this'.

pot was treated way less harsh on campus.

[Anonymous]

I have always said that the problems with alcohol on campuses got way worse when colleges banned kegs in the late 80s/early 90s. Cheap vodka is a lot easier bet to put a freshman in the hospital, or passed out on someone's floor, than solo cups full of Old Mil. So trying to get rid of liquor gets a thumbs up from me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:i wonder what d's policy on pot on campus is.

I'm not going to name the school but my baby sister was a dealer at a very elite slac and it was funny that public drunkeness or alcohol on campus was automatically referred to public safety/cops but being caught with 2 oz's of pot on campus by campus officials was just an internal referral to the dean, who would just tell my sister 'come on, you are better than this'.

pot was treated way less harsh on campus.

As it should be, IMO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's little to do in "Hangover", NH except drink.

That wasn't my experience. I found plenty to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the drinking age being 18 is what's created alot of these problems in the first place. Instead of going out and having a meal and sharing a pitcher of beer, these kids are "pre-gaming" on hard liquor and going to frat houses to drink even more. It's been driven underground and there's no sense of balance or reasonableness in their drinking habits.

Yeah, they should allow people to drink at age 5, like they do in Europe!

[Anonymous]

Hysterical. Now they'll all have to fib about being drunk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i wonder what d's policy on pot on campus is.

I'm not going to name the school but my baby sister was a dealer at a very elite slac and it was funny that public drunkeness or alcohol on campus was automatically referred to public safety/cops but being caught with 2 oz's of pot on campus by campus officials was just an internal referral to the dean, who would just tell my sister 'come on, you are better than this'.

pot was treated way less harsh on campus.

As it should be, IMO.

Really?, Are you a stoner?

[Anonymous]

The more important part of this story is the small but deliberate move towards a residential college system, like Harvard's and Yale's. Brilliant move to put pressure on the frats/sororities to clean up their acts or they will be expelled and cease to be the central organizing principal for social life at the school. As the current frat/soror-loyal donor base dies off, I will bet you dollars-to-donuts that over the next 50 years the school moves the Greeks into the background. This is the first step. Identity of the undergrads, and eventually loyalty of the alumni, will be to Dartmouth first, residential college second, and Greek affiliation a fading third.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The more important part of this story is the small but deliberate move towards a residential college system, like Harvard's and Yale's. Brilliant move to put pressure on the frats/sororities to clean up their acts or they will be expelled and cease to be the central organizing principal for social life at the school. As the current frat/soror-loyal donor base dies off, I will bet you dollars-to-donuts that over the next 50 years the school moves the Greeks into the background. This is the first step. Identity of the undergrads, and eventually loyalty of the alumni, will be to Dartmouth first, residential college second, and Greek affiliation a fading third.

Then you are suggesting a regression to a previous era will occur? Dartmouth used to have a very cohesive dorm based community system. One only has to look at the oldest dorms to find the displays of each dorms' triumphs in a robust intramural program that no longer exists in the same form or really any form amongst dorms today.

Frankly, having attended Dartmouth, participated in the Greek scene, etc. I never found hard alcohol to be the problem post-first year when it really was an issue because you weren't in the Greek scene, you were new to campus, didn't know upperclassmen, likely had little experience with copious amounts of alcohol, and didn't yet have good friends to watch your back. And my first year freshmen were banned from frats fall quarter which impacted the men more than the women to be honest. Sure, hard alcohol was available at closed 'tails events and meetings after first year, but rarely did you attend an open frat party and find hard alcohol, save for a few speciality events - Reds, Saigon, Beach Party, etc. But as I understand it, batch punches were banned several years ago anyway. Mostly it was beer and lots of it. It was not uncommon for me and my friends to play 7+ games of pong in a night. If you want to get ragingly drunk, it will happen with whatever is available as it does on college campuses across the country. I think banning hard alcohol is just a bunch of white noise.

[Anonymous]

Between my kids and nieces and nephews, I know 7 current college students and recent grads at 5 different schools, including Dartmouth. From talking with them, my sense is that the binge drinking problem is deeply ingrained and, while I respect Hanlon's willingness to engage the issue and his political acumen in getting the board's support, banning hard liquor isn't going to have a big impact. As a Dartmouth alum PP noted, if you want to get drunk, playing beer pong all night in some fraternity basement is a pretty effective way to do so.

And even though I started college when the drinking age was still 18, and I know there wasn't anywhere near as much binge drinking then, I don't think that lowering the drinking age now would solve the problem either. Over the past 25-30 years binge drinking has been baked into the college culture -- more so at some schools (and, yes, Dartmouth is certainly one that comes to mind), but, really, it's everywhere to some extent.

That said, some schools aren't known as much for binge drinking as others, and the biggest factor is probably the prevalence of fraternities and sororities, or similar social organizations (yes, I'm looking at you, Princeton). Schools that have banished these organizations or those where they never took hold tend to have less of a problem. That doesn't mean the students don't drink, nor does it mean that there aren't kids who end up in the ER for drinking too much, nor does it mean that there isn't an alcohol-fueled hook-up culture, nor does it mean that there aren't alcohol-fueled rapes. But it does mean that there's less of a crazy drink-till-you-get-hammered-every-single-Thursday-Friday-and-Saturday-night culture. Hanlon's plan to create a residential community system as an alternative to the frat-dominated scene at Dartmouth could be a game-changer in this regard, but that's going to take time and continued support from current students and alums. For those of you with children entering kindergarten about now, check back when your kids are starting to fill out their SAT registration forms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They are dealing with underage drinkers. I don't see how banning liquor will have an impact on the behavior of the students.

+1

I'm sure cocaine is also banned.
Doesn't stop the party.

[Anonymous]

Good move Dartmouth. I wish that we could get high school kids to drink beer instead of vodka

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:i wonder what d's policy on pot on campus is.

I'm not going to name the school but my baby sister was a dealer at a very elite slac and it was funny that public drunkeness or alcohol on campus was automatically referred to public safety/cops but being caught with 2 oz's of pot on campus by campus officials was just an internal referral to the dean, who would just tell my sister 'come on, you are better than this'.

pot was treated way less harsh on campus.

I went to a SLAC as well and pot dealers were completely tolerated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Good move Dartmouth. I wish that we could get high school kids to drink beer instead of vodka

Make beer legal for 16+

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Good move Dartmouth. I wish that we could get high school kids to drink beer instead of vodka

make beer 16 and introduce them to trappist ales, high quality craft brews so they quickly develop a taste for the good stuff and never want to binge on shitty stuff ever.