Dartblog

Students in attendance at the meeting and their advisors were vigorous in their response.

The first volley of questions sought to determine why this policy was being put into place now. Students stated that alcohol use had not varied in recent years, and if the number of Good Sam calls had increased slightly last year, this change was due entirely to students prudently using Good Sam for the safety of fellow students. A few observed that the new policy was a negative response to students’ more responsible behavior.

Numerous students mentioned that the policy would drive drinking behind closed doors and would end Dartmouth’s long, cherished tradition of open Greek parties. Students would now pre-game in their dorms, and then go to Greek houses that would only be open to brothers/sisters and their named guests (so that sting operatives would not be able to gain access to the houses).

A number of students sought to be conciliatory, asking for a “grace period” before the new enforcement régime was put into place, or asking the police to work more cooperatively with the Greeks on the problem, or suggesting that education was the solution rather than harsher punishment. Students sought to speak truth to power, but power was all they got in return from an intransigent Chief and his aggressive prosecutor.

I commented publicly at the meeting that this level of enforcement was no more than vindictive punishment, and was not at all necessary, given that the Hanover Police could use its discretion to limit its enforcement of alcohol-related laws on the books — in the same way that all of the municipal police departments at other Ivy schools turn a blind eye to student drinking on campus. I mentioned that the enforcement of the alcohol laws by the H. Po had long been the harshest in the Ivy League, with no positive result, and that tightened enforcement could lead to dangerous consequences if students feared to enlist the aid of the police in the case of severely intoxicated friends.

The Chief seemed to acknowledge that enforcement was different in other Ivy towns when he replied that if students “don’t like it in Hanover, they can go to another Ivy League school.”