There were 20 percent fewer reports made to Safety and Security over Homecoming weekend this year than there had been the previous year and reports of intoxicated individuals were also down, Safety and Security directory Harry Kinne said.
In total, 52 reports were made starting Friday morning, 13 fewer than the number made during the same period last year. Most reports concerned fire alarms, medical emergencies, bike accidents and minor injuries incurred during athletic contests.
Security on and around Dartmouth’s campus was heightened over the weekend to handle the large influx of alumni, students’ families and Upper Valley residents who arrived for Homecoming weekend. Three extra Safety and Security officers were added to normal patrol units on Friday and Saturday nights and 15 officers from Green Mountain Security — a private contractor that specializes in security and crowd management — were called in to assist Dartmouth’s security. Hanover Police also dispatched additional officers over the weekend.
On Friday night, one person was arrested by the Hanover Police for touching the Homecoming bonfire and two others were detained for trying to do the same.
Touching the bonfire is a dangerous activity, Safety and Security director Harry Kinne said. If an individual attempting to make contact with the fire were to fall in, it would be challenging to recover him or her, Kinne said.
All three individuals will be adjudicated through the College’s judicial process.
Despite its questionable legality, touching the fire is a highly popularized Dartmouth tradition. The act is encouraged by upperclassmen, many of whom scream at the first-year students running around the fire to jump the barrier and run past the security officers guarding the bonfire.
Although Safety and Security officials could not provide an accurate estimation of how many students touched the fire, more students did than the three caught.
“I knew from the start, deep down, that I would end up doing it,” one student who touched the fire said.
The student agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity because of the judicial consequences of publicly admitting to touching the bonfire.
“With everyone building up the crazy deed of touching the fire, truly touching it felt like the best way to synthesize long-standing Dartmouth tradition with personal experience,” the student said. “Plus, a couple people went before me, so I wasn’t scared. I just did it.”
Safety and Security officers will attempt to identify such additional culprits by reviewing videotapes from the event. If they are identified, these students will also be subject to disciplinary action, Kinne said.
Although Hanover Police could not be reached for comment regarding the number of 911 calls over Homecoming weekend, Kinne said that he was made aware that one such call had been made to the emergency number from an address on Webster Avenue regarding a physical altercation. The caller hung up the phone and declined to file a formal report when reached by the police.
On Saturday afternoon, a large number of students rushed onto Memorial Field at the end of the halftime period. Though storming the field was made a crime punishable as disorderly conduct following injuries sustained in the field rush of 1986, there likely will be no penalties for the “rushers” who participated. Nevertheless, one female student was knocked down in the frenzy. She refused any medical attention and returned to the stands.
“To the best of my knowledge, there won’t be any consequences because the students were cooperative and rushed the field at a time when there was no activity going on the field,” Kinne said.
Kinne said Safety and Security received 17 alcohol-related calls throughout the weekend. Six of the intoxicated individuals were taken to Dartmouth-Hitchock Medical Center for treatment and were then brought back to Dick’s House to recover, while six others were brought directly to Dick’s House, where they stayed for the night. The remaining five individuals were not intoxicated to the point at which they required medical attention. Instead, these students were turned over to sober individuals who could monitor them for the night.
Kinne could not provide direct statistics on the number of people who were hospitalized in years past, but he said that this year marked a reduction in instances of intoxication from previous years and that the levels of intoxication of the people Safety and Security encountered was lower than in previous years.
He noted that although he does not have any hard evidence that the decrease in blood alcohol content levels of the intoxicated individuals recovered by Safety and Security is tied to the hard alcohol ban, he is hopeful that the ban has had a positive effect on the number and severity of intoxications.
Dartmouth’s ban on hard alcohol, part of College President Phil Hanlon’s “Moving Dartmouth Forward” policy initiative, went into effect on March 28 last year, making this the first Homecoming with such restrictions.
In the spring, Kinne told The Dartmouth that there were also fewer students sent to Dick’s House and DHMC over Green Key weekend compared to the number sent over the same weekend in earlier years. The number of calls made to Safety and Security during this year’s Green Key was also half the number of those placed in 2014.
Social Event and Alcohol Management working group member Taylor Watson ’16 said that the ban has had a significant impact on campus social life.
“I think that the numbers speak for themselves, in terms of reduced hospitalizations and reduced Good [Samaritan calls], they’re all down, even for first-years,” Watson said. “I think for the most part, people do adhere. I think there was only one violation in the spring.”
Watson explained that while he does not doubt that there are some Greek houses that still serve hard alcohol — particularly in upstairs rooms — the fact that members of Greek organizations have even taken the precautions to hide liquor and keep it out of sight speaks to the fact that they recognize the gravity of the consequences.
While the ban received widespread attention and criticism in the spring from students, Watson said that the non-stop focus on the policy was partially because it was the most tangible aspect of “Moving Dartmouth Forward.”
“We’re hoping that the trend of less highly intoxicated people continues, and we certainly want to encourage people to do everything in moderation in future Homecomings and just have a really enjoyable time, but within the parameters that everyone is safe,” Kinne said.
