On March 10 the College Committee on Alcohol and Other Drugs completed their review of the Student Life Initiative's recommendations, publishing a report detailing the Committee's suggestions that includes support for the removal of taps from Greek houses.
The CCAOD also parallels the rules and regulations from the steering committee report involving all parties being registered directly with Safety and Security, but the proposed date of removal of in-house tap systems by June 1, 2001 rather than the earlier deadline of September 2000.
For it's greatest departure from the original Initiative report, the CCAOD report calls for the establishment of a professionally trained, College-certified, pool of servers to dispense alcohol at all registered events.
Such servers would be accompanied by an "associated certified non-undergraduate" assigned the task of checking student ID's and distributing wrist bands to students of legal drinking age.
The professional bar-tender pool has been employed successfully at Duke University and the University of Pennsylvania, CCAOD Chair Robert Binswanger said, but requires enormous effort on part of the sponsoring university.
"If the College wants to affect change they'll need to go more than half-way on the bartenders," Binswanger said.
This is especially true given the task of finding people to serve, committee member Teddy Rice '00 said. "The bartender pool was probably the most controversial idea we discussed. Most of the disagreement focused on the logistics of the idea. Where will they get all these 'non-students?' The College is going to have to go the extra mile to make this thing work."
Along with this idea, the report offers guidelines for serving hours where a registered event would be required to end at 2 a.m. on nights without classes the following day or midnight if classes were held the following morning. Entertainment, such as musical acts, would also be held to these guidelines.
"The curfews are for all the people who are on the edge during registered events, like the servers and S and S officers," Binswanger said.
The alcohol report opens with the stated goal "to reduce the extent of high-risk drinking on the campus" with the concession that success will only come as part of an overall effort by the College to move forward with the Student Life Initiative.
The CCAOD recommends a multi-faceted approach to curbing the adverse effects of alcohol use on campus, says the report, which mentions such tactics as revamped educational efforts, modification of existing rules and regulations, a clear enforcement plan and a renewed focus on addressing "other drugs" besides alcohol.
In terms of education the report calls for the abandonment of a reactive model in favor of a more "proactive prevention model" that would be comprehensive in the areas of education, intervention, and counseling.
This comprehensive program would include: pre-matriculation communications; mandatory first-year orientation seminars; first-year residence hall sessions; mandatory PE courses on alcohol and other drugs; and compulsory "responsible hosting" workshops for student organizations and Coed Fraternity Sorority houses.
Additionally the "Social Norms" program, started in September 1999, would continue its media program to dispel myths about the actual nature of drinking at Dartmouth, CCAOD member and coordinatorof Alcohol and Other Drug Education, Margaret Smith said.
"Most other campaigns, up to this point, have used 'scare tactics.' We know now that those just don't work."
"[The Social Norms program] is trying to share information that there are people drinking responsibly on this campus, so let's focus on something that students are doing right for a change," Smith said.
The education/intervention plan in the report also calls for a wide network for screening and follows up surrounding interventions. This network would involve coaches, advisors, student organization leaders, and faculty.
The report also recommends that when questions of intervention arise, special attention be made to protect, not persecute the student.
"It is necessary to avoid threatening or moralistic approaches since they are unlikely to promote positive student attitudes," the report says.
The CCAOD report supports the expanded use of peer advisors, but with a redefined role. "[A peer advisor's] role should be to provide information and refer students to trained professional," says the report in recommending that additional -- Dartmouth currently has one professional health educator -- staff members trained in alcohol and other drugs be hired.
Where rules and regulations are concerned the CCAOD report is in line with the goal or minimizing the negative effects of drinking on campus, but is mindful of the rights of legal-age students on campus.
The report thus recommends "to expand the outlets for the licensed sale of alcohol to those persons over 21 as sites for responsible consumption of alcohol.
"What we're talking about," Rice said, "is actually having bars in Homeplate, West Side, or even Rockefeller Center. Not huge places, just little spots to grab a drink."
As for the proposed two track "green light-yellow light" system that would differentiate between rooms and suites and the numbers of people inhabiting each that would necessitate registering events, the CCAOD report rejects this saying, "this would not achieve the objective of encouraging the responsible use of alcohol."
Another recommendation concerns record keeping and suggests that "no alcohol be purchased through any off-the-books funds of any organization or group." Additionally any alcohol purchased would have to be reflected in organization's books.
In terms of enforcement the report suggests that a clearer set of rules be compiled that separate major and minor violations, and that minor violations accumulated en masse eventually reflect major violation status.
The report also suggests increased site-specific sanctions and better consistency in enforcement, as well as the hiring of up to three additional Safety and Security personnel who would have unlimited access. "Something they essentially already have," Rice said.
Another element of the original Initiative report rejected by the CCAOD report is the idea of altering class timetables, testing, assignments and other academic measures to inhibit drinking on week nights.
The report assigns urgency to the presence of other drugs on campus and again recommends a separate educational program to deal with this problem.
The report suggests an alteration to the language in the Student Handbook to convey a "policy [that] aims to deepen student awareness of the problems that abuse of alcohol and other drugs can create, and to involve the College and students in helping to alleviate these problems wherever possible."
"We're trying to create policies with a degree of wiggle room so that can have the freedom to exercise their social lives responsibly," Binswanger said.
Finally the report acknowledges the difficulty of the College's plan, suggesting that it may be a lengthy one as well, and that "a commitment to social responsibility is a worth goal." As such, "a dynamic, comprehensive and creative program focused on alcohol and other drugs is a top priority."
This report is still only a recommendation that pertains to only a limited portion of the Initiative report according to Binswanger. The report will be presented to Dean of the College James Larimore and eventually to College President James Wright.
