Although the College is preparing for its annual Green Key festivities, many universities across the nation have canceled their equivalent spring weekends due to overwhelming safety concerns, largely regarding the excessive alcohol use that commonly takes place during spring weekend events. The College is not taking any steps to decrease the size or scope of Green Key events this year because the weekend has generally run smoothly in the past, Safety and Security Director Harry Kinne said.
This year, the University of Connecticut declared a moratorium on its annual Spring Weekend after a student died during the event last April, UConn Communications Director Michael Kirk said.
"Over the years, Spring Weekend has grown into a behemoth and much of the weekend was focused on massive off-campus parties focused on drinking," Kirk said. "Crowds would range from 10,000 to 15,000 people every night. The challenge for us was, How do you cancel an event that the university does not even own, where the problems mostly happen off-campus?'"
In addition to a moratorium on school-sponsored events during the weekend, the school has asked students to engage in a self-imposed moratorium on off-campus parties, according to Kirk.
UConn also took other measures to prevent non-students from visiting the campus during this weekend, Kirk said. All guests were banned from staying in university dormitories and dining halls were closed to non-students. The university police also enacted roadblocks and closures to make the university difficult to access for non-students, according to Kirk.
"Most importantly, [university officials] spent the last year talking to students and student leaders to get a degree of understanding as why the university felt [the moratorium] was the best way to respond to last year's Weekend," Kirk said.
The administration's efforts, coupled with the timing of the event this year Easter weekend made UConn's Spring Weekend a "non-event," this year," he said.
"On Saturday [of Spring Weekend], the traditional culmination of festivities where thousands gather on a parking lot on campus, virtually no one was there." Kirk said.
At the State University of New York at Albany, administrators have suspended the university's annual Fountain Day celebration, according to SUNY Albany's Media Relations Director Karl Luntta.
A "spring rite of passage," Fountain Day was a celebration of the first day that a large fountain on campus was turned on for the season, Luntta said. Over the years, the event had grown from a "couple hundred" students to as many as 6,000, he said.
At this year's Fountain Day, which occurred over St. Patrick's Day weekend, a "slew" of students was arrested for creating a disturbance in Albany, Luntta said. Many students saw Fountain Day as an opportunity to "indulge" in heavy alcohol consumption, Luntta said.
"[Fountain Day] had become a low point for us as a university," Luntta said. "It came to a point where we had to look very hard at this incident and what it did to the reputation of this university."
SUNY Albany is now working to develop an annual event focused on school spirit to replace
Fountain Day in order to "create a meaningful and fun tradition" for the school, Luntta said.
"Certainly there were students who were disappointed in our decision but many, many students agreed with us," Luntta said. "Now it's time to look ahead."
While several larger universities have enforced strict new policies, the College has not adjusted its safety procedures for Green Key weekend, Kinne said.
"I think a lot of schools are taking a hard look at how they address big weekends, but out of Dartmouth's three big weekends Green Key has generally been less active than the other two," Kinne said. "Generally it's not been as eventful as, say for example, the bonfire."
According to Kinne, "as with all big weekends" at the College, Safety and Security will increase patrols and visibility on campus.
"We've always staffed up for big weekends such as Green Key and we've found that to be effective as things come up," Kinne said. "Therefore we have not changed our approach in any significant way."
Several of Dartmouth's peer institutions interviewed by The Dartmouth said they have not made any significant changes to their respective spring celebrations.
At the University of Pennsylvania, school officials added an age requirement for all attendees of their annual Spring Fling celebration, Director of Student Affairs Katie Hanlon said.
"The minimum age to attend the headlining concert of Spring Fling this year was 18," Hanlon said. "We added this policy because in the past we have had issues with underage drinking."
However, Hanlon said that the university has not changed any major policies related to Spring Fling.
Penn uses a "multiple layer" security approach during Spring Fling that includes efforts to ensure student health and safety by the administration, campus security and student volunteers during the weekend, according to Hanlon.
"We always stress to our students that Spring Fling is a community event," Hanlon said. "It is our students' responsibility to be safe and respectful and if that is violated, things may change. But our students have done a good job with themselves over the years."
Recently, Cornell University shifted the focus of its annual spring celebration known as Slope Day to "a major musical event," Dean of Students Kent Hubbel said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
"Until the early 2000s, the Slope Day event did not include music at all but instead was a moment where students drank to excess on our [university's] sloping green," Hubbel said. "By making a good investment into bringing a well-known musician to campus every year we've created something for students to do other than drink that weekend."
At Yale University, school officials have "generally increased levels" of security over recent years in attempt to control Yale's annual Spring Fling weekend, John Meeske, associate dean for student organizations, said.
According to Meeske, policies such as sealing off the concert space, checking student identification and preventing students from bringing open containers into the venue has "significantly" lowered the number of incidents.
"Our basic feeling is that the event is getting better and more under control," Meeske said. "I was told three or four years ago the event was just wild, with people openly holding alcohol. There was even a story about students drinking from a keg that they buried underground. So I think in comparison to that we are much improved."
