"The vast majority of the recommendations are great," Brace said. "It's a great example of the College administration, students and town members working together for harm reduction."
Brace praised several of the suggestions made in the report, including the recommendation to appoint a single Dartmouth alcohol coordinator as well as developing improved student alcohol education programs. Brace also said the IFC believed the committee's suggestion to keep Dick's House open during Summer term is a "fantastic idea," although he said that the IFC would like more detail on the timeline for the potential implementation of SPAHRC's findings.
"The findings were right on," Brace said. "We agree very strongly with the report that the key problem in dangerous drinking is hard alcohol consumed in dorms pre-gaming is the big problem."
According to the report, the majority of alcohol-related medical cases involve hard alcohol instead of beer and take place in residence halls and other non-Greek locations.
Coeducational Council President Andrew Manns '11 echoed Brace's sentiments about SPAHRC's findings.
"I think that the SPAHRC report was fairly well put together," he said. "It identified that a large portion of the risk does come from dormitories, not necessarily the Greek system itself."
Brace disagreed with the SPAHRC's recommendation that the Greek system should transition from a can-based to a keg-based alcohol distribution system. He said the IFC believes the new keg policy could increase pre-gaming rather than decrease incidents of alcohol overconsumption.
"The IFC feels very strongly that eliminating cases [of beer] is not the way to go," Brace said.
The proposed change would allow Greek organizations to register up to five kegs for a single party an increase from the current limit of two kegs.
Since the policy change only involves beer, Brace said that replacing cans with kegs would not address the problem of overconsumption of hard alcohol.
Transitioning from a can-based to keg-based system would slow the distribution of beer and increase the difficulty of obtaining it, which may lead to increased pre-gaming by students, according to Brace.
"The reason why people pre-game is that it's difficult to get drinks [at parties]," he said.
Brace also expressed concern over the possibility that "risk management audits" would conducted by students. While he said he believes there is "some merit" to student walkthroughs, Brace said that reforms should focus instead on developing "internal" methods for houses to monitor themselves.
Brace noted the increased use of Good Samaritan calls by Greek organizations, as described in the report, citing it as evidence that students are "very much committed to the goal of harm reduction."
IFC could contribute "valuable suggestions" to possible reforms to the current Social Event Management Procedures, Brace said, stressing the need to improve communication between the College and Hanover.
The newly-formed town-College task force on alcohol consumption, which met for the second time last Thursday, will be chaired by acting Dean of the College Sylvia Spears and Hanover Town Manager Julia Griffin. Town members serving on the task force also include Hanover Police Chief Nicholas Giaccone, Hanover Police Captain Frank Moran, as well as town Select Board members Peter Christie '78 and Judith Doherty, according to Griffin.
Members of SPAHRC presented their findings to the town-College task force during their meeting last week.
The task force will begin reviewing the SPAHRC report this summer to discuss possible ways to implement its recommendations and consider possible changes from both the College's and town's perspectives, according to Griffin.
"We are in the very early stages of our work which we expect will take up the majority of the summer," Griffin said.
According to Brace, the town members serving on the task force said they believe it is a "step in the right direction" and "seem very willing" to work with students on the recommendations.
"They seemed very impressed with the hard work that Dartmouth students and the administration had been putting into addressing the problem of dangerous drinking on campus," he said.
Brace said he hopes the town-College task force will "take the time to listen" to students' opinions.
"We do think that we have a lot to contribute as to what is the best thing to do," Brace said. "We very much hope to be a part of that discussion."
Brace also said that the discussion would benefit from increased communication between students and Hanover Police.
"We would have liked to hear more from the police," Brace said. "We're eager to work with Hanover Police and to find common ground."
SPAHRC will meet with College administrators over the next week to decide which of the recommendations are worth implementing and then develop a timeline for implementation, SPHARC student co-chair William Schpero '10 said.
The Committee is choosing to focus on some of the more "timely" issues in the next few weeks, such as revisions to the freshmen orientation programming, he said.
"SPAHRC will continue working all through summer none of this is going on hold," Schpero said.
Panhellenic Council President Anna Sonstegard '11 did not respond to requests for comment by press time.
Schpero is a former member of The Dartmouth Senior Staff.
