Dean of the College Lee Pelton yesterday said he will decide in the next two weeks which recommendations he will implement from the recently released Report on the Task Force on Alcohol.
Although Pelton declined to discuss individual proposals in the report, he said the most important ones dealt with the social role of alcohol on campus. He also said the role of alcohol on campus will be radically different once the implications of the report become clearer.
The report, which Pelton made public at the end of August, was completed in June by a task force chaired by Emily Jones '95 and Dr. Jack Turco, director of health services.
The task force made 33 recommendations, including possibly revising the formula the College uses to determine how many kegs are allowed at registered parties. Other recommendations included possibly making Asgard, a substance-free social organization, into an undergraduate society and keeping College facilities such as the Collis Center and Baker Library open later on weekends.
Another recommendation Pelton made note of called for the College to "undergo a systematic and comprehensive evaluation of alcohol and other drug related issues, including a needs assessment and an evaluation of current programs, policies and procedures."
"We have to survey the kind of culture of alcohol that exists," Pelton said. "Whether or not this will be done by an internal or external evaluator remains to be seen."
Turco said the report will be the main topic of discussion at a meeting on Tuesday of the College's various deans and directors.
"At that point [Pelton] will begin to decide how to address the report," he said.
From there it can be any amount of time before the proposals will be implemented, Turco said.
Pelton and Turco said the College Committee on Alcohol and Other Drugs, which has been virtually non-existent the last three years, will be revived to a degree not yet determined to serve in an advisory role.
"We think we have to reconstitute CCAOD so it can look at it [the problem of campus alcohol abuse] in a more continuous matter," Turco said.
The CCAOD is charged with making recommendations to the Dean of the College on subjects dealing with drug and alcohol abuse on campus.
Neither Pelton nor Turco would discuss specific ways in which the committee might be restructured.
The real problem with exacting meaningful change in the College's social atmosphere is the law prohibiting anyone younger than 21 from drinking, Turco said.
"In a sense we are talking out of both sides of our mouths," he said. "We are trying to encourage responsible drinking, but at the same time we are charged with punishing underage drinking."
Turco thinks that this situation would be alleviated if the legal drinking age was lowered to 18.
Since that was out of the scope of the task force's responsibility, Turco said the task force had to make recommendations that "deal peripherally with the issue of alcohol abuse."
Turco said while the real problem is huge, his task force provided "a step forward" in addressing the complicated problem of alcohol at Dartmouth.
"We have to realize we have a really tough problem here, and that we are no smarter than we were in '84, or '87," years when past reports were made, "and we have to be happy with incremental changes in the role of alcohol on campus," Turco said.
Although the report's practical result on campus is not yet clear, Turco said the report will hopefully impact College life.
"I am satisfied that there will be incrementally less binge drinking on campus," after the report is implemented, he said.
