In the first full term since College President Phil Hanlon announced the details of his “Moving Dartmouth Forward” policy initiative, both students and administrators reported having felt little effect from the College’s new hard alcohol ban. Meanwhile, the working groups tasked with fleshing out the other aspects of the “Moving Dartmouth Forward” policies are starting to receive feedback on their initial plans.
Associate dean of the College Liz Agosto said that, presently, the primary feature of the “Moving Dartmouth Forward” policy initiative is the continued discussion in working groups, which are working to create fully-fledged policies behind the basic “Moving Dartmouth Forward” proposals.
“President Hanlon handed us a vision, and there really weren’t a lot of details about how that vision would pan out,” she said.
The bulk of the “Moving Dartmouth Forward” agenda are long-term plans, Agosto said. Only the hard alcohol ban was implemented this term.
Judicial affairs director Leigh Remy said that between five and 10 students have faced judicial affairs proceedings for hard alcohol-related infractions. While she declined to comment on the details of the proceedings, she said that the College will follow its policies when meting out consequences for students.
The hard alcohol ban calls for a student to be put on College probation for one term after a first hard alcohol infraction, followed by one term of suspension for a second infraction.
Remy estimated that the College has seen a decrease in hard alcohol-related incidents this term but said that exact details are limited at this time.
Agosto said that there has been a slight decline in medical transports based on preliminary data. She said she is not sure if there is any connection to the hard alcohol ban and that it is “way too early” to tell if the College is safer than it was before the hard alcohol ban took effect.
Safety and Security director Harry Kinne said that there has been a decrease in hard alcohol-related incidents this term.
“I think that the number of instances involving hard alcohol since the ban has been significant,” he said. “We haven’t seen as many incidents where we believe hard alcohol is involved or where we’ve actually confiscated hard alcohol.”
While many of the policies that impact Safety and Security are still being developed, Kinne said he has not noticed a major shift in the work of Safety and Security officers or in their relationship with students.
Working groups have been producing initial documents, some of which have been published. Remy, the co-chair of the community citizenship working group, provided a copy of the proposed Dartmouth College Pledge of Conduct, which is planned to go into effect with the Class of 2019 in the fall.
The pledge requires matriculating students to commit to holding themselves “to the highest standards of learning, teaching, service and scholarship,” abide by the Academic Honor Principle and respect fellow members of the Dartmouth community.
The pledge is the primary component of the community citizenship working group’s job, which will also include creating a statement of values for Dartmouth, Remy wrote in an email.
The social event and alcohol management working group, which is responsible for overhauling Social Events and Management Procedure policy and creating a more inclusive and safe campus social environment, will likely release its official recommendations in the fall, the group’s co-chair, assistant dean and director of case management Kristi Clemens, said.
Taylor Watson ’16, the other co-chair for the social event and alcohol management working group, said the group has been presenting a preliminary draft of its recommendations to a variety of campus leaders, faculty and administrators, whose feedback has been generally positive.
Watson said the group intends to change SEMP’s name to the Alcohol Management Procedure, or AMP. Rather than closely monitoring quantities or types of alcohol, the new policy will outline the minutiae of how alcohol is to be managed, including ensuring the constant presence of a student to manage a point-source alcohol distribution system to ensure safety, he said.
Another goal of the group is to restore the style of Greek parties from several decades ago, when medium-sized gatherings of fewer than 100 people could be hosted simultaneously by multiple houses, rather than one or two houses hosting large gatherings, Watson said.
“He remembered it being more equal, more of an even playing field among the houses,” Watson said of an alumnus with whom he discussed the policy. “There’s a more even distribution of risk, of alcohol management, of social capital.”
Administrators are attempting to solicit student opinions on “Moving Dartmouth Forward” more aggressively. In addition to conversations with students, they are also reading student publications and forums, Agosto said.
Remy said that all undergraduates will soon be emailed a document asking about their views on the “Moving Dartmouth Forward” policy.
“I think the changes right now are conversational, if not tangible,” Agosto said. “I think where we are seeing change is in the level of discourse around some of this stuff, around some of the high-risk issues, certainly around academic rigor.”
An anonymous survey of 30 students conducted by The Dartmouth yesterday found that the hard alcohol ban is unpopular with students. Ninety percent of respondents do not believe that the ban has improved campus safety, and nearly 60 percent said they had consumed hard alcohol this term.
Most students agreed that the ban is having an impact on campus social life, with about two thirds of respondents claiming they had seen a change this term. Of those who had seen a change, almost 90 percent thought the change had been negative.
Students provided a range of thoughts on the ban’s impacts, though the majority who gave opinions indicated that many students are drinking secretly, which they noted may decrease student safety. One student commented that “alcohol doesn’t rape people” and noted that the lack of hard alcohol will not make students more studious. Others said that they had witnessed more underground drinking than usual in the past term.
“If anything, the ban has put these students at a greater risk because they will be too afraid to call [Safety and Security] because of the repercussions,” one student wrote.
