The Good Sam policy allows an intoxicated student or that student's concerned friend to call Safety and Security and, with no questions asked and no disciplinary ramifications from the College, receive a medical response.
When the student involved is unresponsive or has a blood alcohol content of above 0.30, he or she is transferred to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, rather than receiving treatment at Dick's House. Because Hanover Fire Department ambulances, which perform these transfers, are escorted by Hanover Police, these situations almost always result in arrest.
The Assembly's legislation looks to investigate whether the possibility of arrest causes students to reconsider calling for help.
The legislation calls for the Assembly to "explore pushing the Town of Hanover to adopt policies removing or reducing these disincentives."
Some Assembly members raised concerns, however, that reducing the punishment associated with drinking may not benefit students in the long run.
David Imamura '10, a co-sponsor of the legislation, responded to these objections by citing the potential benefits of removing these possible disincentives, namely that more students will receive the medical help they need when intoxicated.
Imamura also addressed perceived student confusion about the legal consequences of arrest, explaining that students can petition to expunge their legal records once they reach age 21.
The legislation also proposed a survey to gauge why students may choose not call for help when dealing with a student at a potentially dangerous level of intoxication.
"The reason we're collecting data is just to demonstrate the hesitation factor," Deanna Portero '12, a co-sponsor of the legislation, said.
The legislation cited the 2005 adoption of the current Good Sam policy, which allows students to make an unlimited number of Good Sam calls, as an example of the importance of removing barriers that might cause students to hesitate before calling in sick friends, as outlined in an Assembly review of alcohol policy.
After the new policy was implemented, the number of students who called Safety and Security for help increased from 28 between 2004 and 2005 to 97 between 2007 and 2008, according to the review.
"We were having that same conversation, 'Will it really make people safer?'" Assembly member David Nachman '09 said, adding later, "And four times as many people call now."
Student Assembly will evaluate the results of the survey and dispatch students to a meeting of the Hanover committee responsible for alcohol policy on March 2, according to the legislation.
"There are obviously some valid concerns on [the students'] part, and we agreed to look into them and run it by a committee that deals with substance in the community," Hanover Police Chief Nicholas Giaccone said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
At Tuesday's meeting, Assembly members discussed the current town protocol that requires Hanover Police to respond with Hanover Fire Department ambulances.
"It's really about keeping the people in the ambulance safe, as well as the students," Student Body President Molly Bode '09 said.
One solution, Imamura said, would be to provide an ambulance through the College. The expense, however, at $600,000, might be a prohibitive factor, he said.
"Every other Ivy League school has their own ambulance," Imamura said.
Miesha Smith '09, Ruslan Tovbulatov '09 and Ariana Almas '11 also presented a study of the social lives of abstainers and light drinkers at Dartmouth. According to the survey, 58.7 percent of the more than 2,500 students who took part in the study describe themselves as abstainers or light drinkers.
Some Assembly members asked what qualified someone as a "light drinker."
The study combined results from the 2008 Dartmouth Health Survey as well as focus groups held in the fall. The groups explored how happy students who abstain or drink lightly are at Dartmouth, and what they would like to see changed on campus, according to Smith.
"We have come under this assumption in general at Dartmouth, especially in programming, that to get people to come you need to have alcohol," Smith said.
Abstainers and light drinkers are looking for campus events without alcohol, she said.
The presentation addressed the discrepancy between the amount of money spent on 2007-2008 events that took place after midnight and had alcohol present, versus those that took place after midnight without alcohol.
According to the data collected in the study, after midnight events with alcohol received a total of $104,439, while those without alcohol received $11,750.
"We need to put a concentration on how we spend our money," Smith said.
