Some interesting articles today about Dartmouth’s decision to ban hard alcohol from campus. http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/01/29/dartmouth-plans-reforms-for-campus-safety/
http://www.wsj.com/articles/dartmouth-banning-hard-alcohol-from-campus-1422540038
http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/01/29/the-college-partying-crackdown/?fb_ref=Default
Nanny comes to New Hampshire. I’m sure that all of the students at Dartmouth, especially those who are 21 years of age or older, are excited that Grandma Hanlon now plans to treat them like children. What a grand idea!
They all seem good ideas to me. Years ago, beer was the prevalent drink on campus, and you drank at the party, not so much pre-game; nowadays, students start with cocktails in their rooms before they go out to parties, and as a consequence get drunker, faster. Dartmouth’s reputation as a party school is interfering with its efforts to remain one of the very best schools in the country, and this will help.
This seems like the actions of a frightened administration. If (when) the next allegation of a drunken assault takes place, they’ll be able to hold a press conference outlining the proactive steps they’ve taken and hopefully mitigate the damages from a civil suit.
Dartmouth came to my son’s school to actively recruit more applicants. they were very blunt about the bruising the school’s reputation had taken. The rep said that it was a priority of the President to ‘change’ its reputation as a hard-drinking frat school. The college counselor at my son’s school said not to hold our breath, that they’d been saying this for a while. Anyway, the college rep talked a lot abott the outstanding academics but also focused on alternatives to Greek parties and life. My son talked to a number of recent Dartmouth grads who said that alcohol and Greek life dominate the campus and that it’s hard partying–but that the academics were fantastic. they said it was possible to find non-alcohol soaked events but it took some effort. Ultimately he did not apply.
Well, I know some of the mommies of boys who might apply to DC like this mandate decreed by Pres. Hanlon. I also know that many of the students now at Dartmouth, of which my son is one, don’t give a spit for this over-reaching rule.
Boys grow into men…usually. College is often where much of this growth occurs. The most important thing that a boy (or girl) can do to become a man (or woman) is to become responsible. If colleges are now going to play nanny and hide the booze, even from students 21 years or older, then these schools will be treating their students as children and not encouraging them to become responsible adults. Bad move, Dartmouth. You are moving backwards, not forward.
In the end, I hope that Dartmouth has proclaimed its campus to be free from hard alcohol only so that the mommies will be encouraged to send their kids to Hanover and to let their boys and girls grow up to be Big Greenies, but that the school will, for the most part, turn a blind eye when enforcing this misplaced rule. Such is the game played on many college campuses around the country already.
In the end, prohibition doesn’t work and often spawns worse behavior than the misbehavior it tries to stop. Dartmouth, let’s be adults here, not children.
Toombs, one of the big problems had been consumption of hard liquor by students who are NOT 21 years or older, which would be the vast majority of the undergraduates. I think the new policy accepts that beer pong will continue, but is an attempt to prevent/limit the preloading with harder stuff that goes on. I do not think that learning how to chug back shots of vodka or whatever is how boys and girls learn to be men and women. If I have misunderstood the point you were trying to make, my apologies.
I could not disagree with you more, Toombs. (And I am a person who thinks that the current drinking and drug laws are a huge mistake.) I think that it is important to look at the entirety of what Hanlon is proposing, especially the residential colleges. I think that Hanlon is acting from strength and a genuine love for Dartmouth, not from weakness AT ALL.
Read this version of the stoy, which takes a somewhat different view:
http://www.vnews.com/home/15449664-95/dartmouths-road-to-reform
Drinking alcohol, beer or other wise, under the age of 21 is, I understand, against the law in NH. If so, such law should be enforced by the proper authorities as they deem appropriate. Drinking alcohol, while 21 years of age or older, is, I believe, not against the law in NH. If so, then Dartmouth should not up the ante here and prohibit adults from drinking alcohol on campus. Again, treating adults as children is bad practice.
As for allowing kids younger than 21 to drink on campus, all colleges should prohibit such usage. On this I think that all here on this blog will agree. In my humble opinion, however, schools need to be judicious in enforcing those rules. There are many ways to help, not hurt, young men and women who may misuse adult beverages. Prohibition of underage drinking is necessary. But let’s keep our wits about us, Mr. Hanlon,and not denounce those that drink the devil’s rum as devils who must be run down, ripped out and tossed aside at Dartmouth.
A) I don’t agree
B) This is not a blog
I can assure you that the are plenty of parents on cc who do not concur, strongly do not concur. (Just do a search.)
Just because something is legal in the State does not necessarily mean it should not be prohibited/restricted on campus, particularly if that something contributes to bad stuff, like sexual assault. Dartmouth owns the dorms and can enact any rules and regulations that it so desires. Smoking, for example, is legal in all 50 states, but Dartmouth could, if it wanted, ban smoking on all campus property.
btw: the California State Constitution bans retail sale of alcohol within 1 mile of each UC campus, yet no such restriction was added for the Cal State system when it was added. Just an example of something that is perfectly legal – sales of beer and wine – but that is restricted near a college campus for public policy purposes.
Yes, BB, I think that you have put a name to the true beast that Big Nanny Dartmouth is trying to catch with her net of rules and red tape prohibiting alcohol: sexual-assault against women, which is indeed a true evil. Yes, booze can contribute to such assault. But why prohibit only liquor if we really are trying to end sexual assault? Let’s outlaw on campus at Dartmouth everything that might “contribute” or lead to sexual assault … like co-ed dorms, social gatherings among men and women without chaperones, pornography, and all bodily contact between the opposite sexes. Hey, let’s lock the joint down every night and have roll call every evening at midnight just before lights out, all under the terms and conditions of a strictly enforced curfew. These additional prohibitions will help curd “bad stuff” and help chain the beast. And while we are chasing the beast around campus, let’s make sure that we are creating a better college and not creating a new convent.
Evil is in the heart of men and women. It is not in the bottom of a liquor bottle. Banning liquor in the hope of banning evil is a fool’s errand. It is not wise for a great school like Dartmouth to teach and pursue foolishness.
Hyperbole seldom persuades.
Perhaps. But hyperbole is in the eye of the beholder.
As for my list of additional ways to curb sexual assault, this list is not beyond the realm of reason. In fact, this list was the list in place when I was in prep school and is still the list in place for some prep schools today.
Ah, you say, but Dartmouth is not a prep school; it is a college. Yes…my point exactly. So treat the students there like college men and women, not like prep school children.