The Greek Leadership Council’s policy banning freshmen from attending Greek events that serve alcohol during the first six weeks of fall term is set to continue into its third year when the Class of 2019 arrives on campus this fall.
The policy, which aims to protect first-year students and mitigate risk for Greek houses, saw few violations reported last year, and many Greek houses held alcohol-free events tailored for the first-year class.
More than 70 events were hosted by Greek houses specifically tailored to the Class of 2018 during the first six weeks of the fall 2014 term, most of which utilized GLC sponsorship from the organization’s $25,000 budget for such events, up from $20,000 the previous year.
A survey conducted by The Dartmouth shortly before the ban ended in October 2014 found that over 90 percent of the Class of 2018 had attended a GLC-sponsored event in the fall. A majority of students surveyed had attended three or more of the events.
Safety and Security director Harry Kinne praised the policy. Although S&S is not responsible for enforcing the ban, he said that the ban demonstrates leadership and responsible governance on the part of Greek houses.
“I applaud them for taking it on themselves. This was not something that was an administrative directive; it was brought up from the Greek organizations themselves, the Greek leadership, and I think it’s been very effective,” he said.
The GLC-sponsored events last fall were highly varied. Many dance parties were hosted by fraternities and sororities alike, but panel discussions, performance art, and arts and crafts events were also held.
Numerous a cappella and dance group performance events were opened to first-years, as were ice cream socials, pumpkin carving events, and panels discussing the Greek system and political issues, including a “What I Wish I Knew” panel at Kappa Delta Epsilon sorority during which affiliated and unaffiliated women shared their perspectives on Greek life.
The GLC’s $25,000 budget for the first-year Greek events was provided by the Dean’s Office, and was largely exhausted after the ban extended the Monday after Homecoming weekend.
The ban was first announced in May 2013 and was engineered to create a safer environment for freshmen while also mitigating the risks Greek houses face when hosting them. It also aims to encourage freshmen to explore alternative social spaces and bond with their classmates outside of the Greek system.
“I think it’s been beneficial to the campus and also allows the Greek organizations to really sort of focus on themselves in some ways, with upperclass students from other organizations, and I think many times first-year students create the organization’s problems in the past when they were allowed to go into the houses right away,” Kinne said. “I think that probably created a lot of the problems for the organizations who wanted to be sure they were creating a safe environment, because some of the first-years didn’t understand the rules and regulations and sort of the guidelines.”
While the Greek system mitigates its own potential risks by keeping the ban in place, it does not entirely stop first-year alcohol consumption, which can still occur in dorms and at other campus venues.
Before the Class of 2018 arrived on campus in 2014, Mary Sieredzinski ’17 said that she felt the policy excluded freshmen from the broader campus community and made it difficult to socialize with upperclassmen, although she said that the policy could potentially motivate freshmen to socialize amongst themselves.
Undergraduate societies – namely Panarchy and Amarna – are not subject to the ban.
Upon the policy’s implementation in fall 2013, the College saw a record low number of alcohol-related incidents. Data released by the Dartmouth College Health Improvement Program and the GLC in January 2014 showed a drop in the number of intoxicated students handled by S&S drop from 99 in fall 2012 to 83 in fall 2013. Good Samaritan calls dipped from 48 to 37, and the percent of alcohol-related incidents involving freshmen dipped negligibly, although the change was not statistically significant.
Last year, the Greek Board on Accountability, a subset of the GLC, was established to oversee compliance with the ban. Greek organizations found in violation of the policy will be fined, while freshmen found in violation of the policy will not be allowed to participate in rush until the end of their sophomore year, rather than the beginning of sophomore year.
In an Oct. 22, 2014 opinion column in The Dartmouth, Spencer Blair ’17 criticized the ban, writing that it promotes the use of hard alcohol in dorm parties that can cause drunkenness much more quickly than the light beer served in Greek houses. Freshmen, Blair wrote, may also make fewer Good Samaritan calls, since they are less familiar with the policy.
Kinne said that from his perspective the ban has been highly effective.
“I think it’s been working very well. I hope the organizations continue to support it. I think it has had a positive effect,” he said. I think it helps create more of a sense of community for first-year students, because in many ways they’re in a situation where they’re learning who their classmates are in a different surrounding.”
Kinne said that the ban is “a good first step,” but that it is part of a broader set of policies designed to end high-risk drinking and make Dartmouth a safer community.
Kinne said he was not able to comment on changes that might take place for the Class of 2019, since the ban is a GLC policy, and he is not affiliated with GLC.
