Officially limiting use of beer cans at Greek organizations may drive student drinking underground and increase consumption of hard alcohol, according to students interviewed on Thursday. The potential can limitation is part of proposed changes to the College's alcohol policy which aim to reduce trends of hard alcohol consumption and "pre-gaming."
The Student and Presidential Alcohol Harm Reduction Committee presented its suggestions to amend College alcohol policy to the Dartmouth community Wednesday. Suggestions ranged from implementing a student party monitoring structure to revamped alcohol education for incoming students.
While students welcomed the proposed expansion of alcohol education at the College, they questioned the practicality of appointing sober monitors to turn away intoxicated students from parties at Greek houses. Students also expressed skepticism about SPAHRC's proposal to eliminate beer cans in fraternity basements and in turn liberalize the keg policy.
Jonny Kessner '12 suggested that the elimination of cans from the basement may prove counterproductive.
"Sometimes people use the cans to remember how much they drank, and with only kegs people will lose track more easily," he said.
Other students said it is impossible to predict the effects of the policy change before it is implemented.
"This policy could go either way," Naomi Stahl '12 said. "Students who have friends living in frats may go to their rooms to take shots if lines get too long, but then again others may just be forced to slow down their drinking."
Only serving beer from kegs may also be inconvenient when fraternity basements become crowded, Robby Pride '10 said.
"I feel like it's way easier to dispense cans and get beer to people quickly," Pride said. "I hate standing behind the bar with a million people asking for cups when we're trying to pump the keg as fast as possible."
He acknowledged, however, that dispensing alcohol more slowly might effectively control consumption.
SPAHRC members expressed concern in their findings about the dangers associated with "pre-games" heavy drinking before attending a party at a Greek organization. To limit such behavior, the committee suggested that fraternities choose a member to serve as a sober monitor at each party. Monitors would identify individuals who are dangerously intoxicated, turn away such students at the door and use the Good Samaritan policy when appropriate.
Several students, however, said that sober monitors may prove insufficient to prevent "pre-gaming" because of the prevalence of such instances.
"This could curb pre-gaming if people want to go out to certain places and know they won't get in," Oscar Flores '12 said. "But people might also just decide not to go out and get smashed in their rooms because some, especially girls, like to drink hard liquor instead of beer."
All students interviewed by The Dartmouth agreed that a more comprehensive alcohol education program is necessary to promote safety.
"Blitzing out to campus before big weekends would definitely be helpful," Stahl said. "I also think incoming freshmen should get special attention regarding the alcohol policy, because I remember seeing a lot of people in my class getting in trouble the first few weeks of school."
Flores said that while the College's current alcohol education program is a helpful resource, the College has had difficulty enforcing alcohol regulations without driving alcohol consumption underground.
"The problem becomes a problem of enforcement, because you can't monitor or regulate how much an individual can drink," he said. "Stricter rules that would attempt to curb alcohol-related incidents would only take away from our unique Greek system and drive students to drink in their rooms, where other students might not be able to help them in extreme cases."
SPAHRC's proposal to facilitate increased communication between town officials, College administrators, Greek leaders and students may aid in the development of safer practices, because "communication is the best way to go about it," Flores added.
