Dean of the College Lee Pelton announced yesterday that College Health Services Director Dr. Jack Turco will co-chair a task force aimed at examining the problems caused by alcohol at the College.
A student will co-chair the task force, but Pelton said he would not release the student's name yet.
Pelton said he chose Turco because "he has been very involved in this issue at Dartmouth."
"He, in fact, was the originator of several alcohol programs that have in the past received some national attention, so he brings to this a lot of experience and knowledge," Pelton said.
Pelton said the task force, which will convene at the beginning of next term, will look at four aspects of alcohol on campus.
He said the task force will look at underage drinking on campus, evaluate the effect of alcohol on gender relations, make recommendations concerning the membership and charter of the College Committee on Alcohol and Other Drugs and will make suggestion on the effectiveness of the College's current programs dealing with alcohol.
In addition to the two co-chairs, Pelton said the task force, which should be finished with its work by the end of Spring term, will be composed of other administrators and faculty members. But he added the task force will be "mostly students."
Turco said the task force should not be seen as the beginning of an about-face of the College's alcohol policy. He said it should be seen as the next step in a slow shift in attitudes regarding alcohol, which began in the early 1980s.
Turco said people have begun to look more into some of the negative social effects resulting from excessive alcohol use.
"The group is really to gather what's been done and what's been said and really pick a few specific areas to look at," Turco said. "I hope people will look at this committee as part of the evolution as opposed to just reinventing the wheel."
The current alcohol policy, which heralded the return of kegs on campus and the introduction of student alcohol monitors, was introduced in the spring of 1993.
Both Turco and Pelton said student involvement in the task force will be extremely important.
"I wanted to ask a student to co-chair the committee with Dr. Turco because I think this is an issue that is near and dear to the hearts of most students," Pelton said.
Turco also said ultimately the community will not see any real solutions to alcohol-related problems unless students themselves take things into their own hands.
"I think students are more able to come up with ways to push that then faculty or administration," Turco said.
The task force must look at the problem on many levels, he said.
"I think it needs to be a multi-faceted approach ... The ultimate, probably, is for the student culture to not tolerate the negative effects produced by alcohol abuse," Turco said.
The task force must try to come up with answers to difficult questions like where drinking takes place on campus, something not adequately reflected by demographic statistics, Turco said.
Turco said some suggested solutions include hiring more licensed bartenders to serve at parties and having different formulas to dictate how much alcohol can be present at parties.
Currently, the number of kegs allowed at a party is based on the number of students over the age of 21 on campus at the time.
The task force is the third phase in the College's reexamination of alcohol use on campus. The first phase involved gathering information from various members of the College community, including students, administrators and house advisers.
For the second phase, a group of 30 students and administrators met for a retreat on Feb. 21 to discuss how the College could improve its current alcohol policy.
Pelton said Turco has had much experience dealing with alcohol programs, both at the College and nationwide.
"I think the main thing I would emphasize is that I've been involved in alcohol issues since 1985," Turco said. "Alcohol was much less talked about then and people were changing the way they thought about alcohol."
Turco has also played a key role in national and international alcohol debates. In 1987, Ronald Reagan appointed Turco to join a delegation sent to the Soviet Union to discuss alcohol problems plaguing both superpowers.
