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The Dartmouth
July 10, 2025 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth

Bad Sam

Indulge me in a hypothetical situation you might find familiar: It's 3 a.m., and you are walking through a parking lot behind Fraternity Row. You've been enjoying the final moments of a night well-spent forgetting reality in our consequence-free little world. But something interrupts your stagger-stepped revelry: you come across two of your friends, one lying in the fetal position on the ground, half-conscious, puking all over herself, and the other drunkenly trying to do something about it. What do you do?

You call Good Sam. Safety and Security comes, picks up your friend and takes her to Dick's House, from where she is sent to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. Hanover Police follows the ambulance taking your friend away and arrests her on charges of possession of alcohol by consumption. But wait a second -- your friend is on thin ice with administration already. Her parents would cut off tuition if she got in trouble with the police. Your friend can't afford the charges associated with being arrested.

So you don't call Good Sam and you let your friend sleep it off. You half drag her back to your dorm, throw her in a shower and try to stay awake to keep an eye on her. But wait a second -- you are drunk and unable to take responsibility for this person's life. Your friend could roll over and suffocate. Your friend could die.

This, unfortunately, is a choice that can come with the social life we lead here at Dartmouth College. I tend to think we should, as a campus, decide to just chill out a little on the drinking thing and not do it so much, or as often. However, it seems that the brilliant minds here place a high value on their quad-weekly escapism, and the culture here isn't going to change anytime soon. Maybe it should, maybe it shouldn't -- I'm not here to pass hypocritical judgment on a culture I enjoy, nor am I here to defend those who choose to enjoy it too.

But what all students and administrators can and have agreed on is the overwhelming necessity to ensure the safety of students on campus. To this effect, I applaud the administration's efforts to implement programs like the Good Samaritan policy, which absolves students from disciplinary action after seeking medical attention for another student, as well as Safety and Security's focus on student well-being. But what about the aforementioned hypothetical situation? The Town of Hanover requires the police to charge any persons under the age of 21 with possession by consumption upon their arrival in an ambulance at DHMC. The Student Assembly has wisely chosen to investigate the effects this policy("Assembly to examine town alcohol policies," Feb. 18), which I think is a serious and potentially life-threatening obstacle to student safety at Dartmouth.

Students know that if one of their friends has mistakenly chosen to overindulge, the best option is to take advantage of the Good Sam policy. However, the penalties incurred as a result of the Town of Hanover's policy may make students think twice about doing what is best and right for their friend -- and could cause them to end up making a decision that could have dire consequences for the person they are trying to help.

I am not attempting to be a voice for the hoards of drunken underage students who seek to avoid the consequences of their actions. Someone severely intoxicated who gets Good Sammed should still face penalties -- warnings from the administration, required counseling and the realization that waking up in a hospital is not a pleasurable experience. However, while the thought of arrest might cause some to pause before calling for help, these consequences would not. Someday, in the face of the currently established regulations, a friend's inaction will result in someone not making it. Whether it be a first-time drinker without the experience to know his or her limits, or a poor fraternity pledge just trying to fit into our messed-up system, someone eventually will pay the price for a policy that counters the established ideology of protecting student safety.

This is something we, as Dartmouth students, faculty and administrators, can change. The Town of Hanover's policy comes with low benefits and a potentially catastrophic cost. Taking it away will not result in a sudden explosion of students drinking at Dartmouth, but it will result in more and more students taking advantage of the best safety measure the College has in place -- the Good Sam policy. Let's eliminate the obstacles to the program's most efficient usage, so we can make the best of our situation.