Despite recent and unsettling setbacks in College alcohol reform ("Spears says College will not adopt AMP," Sept. 24), this week offered encouraging reminders of the progress Dartmouth continues to make in crafting an enlightened approach to dealing with underage drinking on campus.
The release of an annual crime report from Safety and Security revealed a 65-percent decrease in College disciplinary proceedings for alcohol violations ("College liquor infractions drop," Oct. 1). In an interview with The Dartmouth, interim associate Dean of the College Harry Kinne credited the decrease, in part, to an August 2008 decision to refer first-time offenders to a College alcohol education program, rather than doling out disciplinary sanctions.
It is hard to dispute the logic of this policy: College should be about learning from one's mistakes and making more responsible decisions in the future.
The College's effort to liberalize its alcohol policies may be for naught, however, if Dartmouth does not push Hanover Police toward reform as well. Although encouraging on some fronts, the 2008 crime report released this week also cited nine more liquor law arrests than did the 2007 report. According to Kinne, eight of these arrests occurred during one incident in a residence hall.
Last spring, we called on Hanover Police to emulate the policies of police forces in similar towns ("Verbum Ultimum: Arresting Progress," May 15) after an investigative report by The Dartmouth revealed that some of these police forces routinely overlook the more rigid aspects of possession by consumption laws ("Dartmouth students face high alcohol arrest rate," May 12).
Our stance remains unchanged, even in the face of changing College policy: While underage students should certainly be arrested if caught drinking, the threat of police action must never jeopardize a student's access to medical care a troubling result of the policy that leads Hanover Police to arrest intoxicated underage students who are transported to the hospital via ambulance.
College President Jim Yong Kim, himself a medical doctor, seems to understand the quandary of the Good Samaritan policy. In an interview with The Dartmouth, Kim said that the state's possession by consumption laws have "put us in a situation where there are some really potentially negative effects."
It is now time for Kim to act on his own concerns. Even as we seek appropriate internal reform, the Kim administration must not hesitate to engage in discussion with Hanover Police Chief Nicholas Giaconne to ensure that nothing hampers students from making the right decision.
We are certainly not asking for a free pass: Students who flagrantly abuse drinking laws should of course receive appropriate punishment. But without efforts outside the confines of College jurisdiction, campus alcohol reform will never achieve its most important goal: saving lives.
