Dartmouth University, an Ivy League in New Hampshire, announced on January 29, 2015, that it would be banning hard liquor on campus and overhauling its famed Greek system.
The social scene at Dartmouth has long been led by the Greek system, a monopoly that was immortalized in the 1978 cult film Animal House. Recently, though, the university has pushed for stricter policies on the Greek system: “pledging” is no longer allowed and houses are required to have faculty advisers of both sexes.
Dartmouth’s ban came in the wake of the conviction of former Vanderbilt football players of gang rape and the statistics that link heavy consumption of alcohol with high-risk behaviors, as well as a greater incidence of violence on college campuses. Many other institutions have set limitations on alcohol: Bowdoin, Bates, and Colby have all established rules about hard alcohol in general and Stanford, Colgate, and Swarthmore no longer allow liquor in certain areas of campus or at specific events.
The university's ban on any liquor that holds 15 percent or more alcohol will begin on March 30. Dr. Philip Hanlon, Dartmouth’s president, has also said that there will be more severe penalties for those who provide alcohol to minors, though they haven’t yet been quantified.
Though the ban will cover campus territory, there are concerns that the school's party culture won’t be significantly changed by the new rules. For example, as the New York Times explains, “Pennsylvania State University has a fairly strict alcohol policy…yet it is routinely rated as one of the most raucous party schools in the country.” However, Penn State is in an extremely urban area as opposed to Dartmouth’s quiet neighboring town of Hanover.
Jake Rascoff, a senior at Dartmouth, says that the ban“will increase the incidence of surreptitious binge drinking and increase the risk of binge drinking off campus, which will lead to drunk driving.” Catherine Donahoe, the social chairwoman of Kappa Delta Epsilon says that if she “were to design the policy, it’d be pushing alcohol into the open so that it’s as visible as possible.”
While current students appear to have mixed feelings about the abolishment of hard liquor, Dr. Hanlon has stated that "organizations that choose not to fulfill these higher standards will not be a part of our community...and if the Greek system as a whole does not engage in meaningful, lasting reform, we will revisit its continuation on our campus." The very existence of Dartmouth's iconic Greek life could be at stake with these new rules, and according to a recent survey of alumnae and members of the community, perhaps this change of Greek and community culture would be well received.
In addition to banning hard liquor, Dr. Hanlon announced a new social system that will be implemented in the fall. Incoming students will be placed in dorms that have been sorted into communities. The communities will hold large social events and have faculty advisors; the idea is to have these communities serve as an alternative to those who don’t want to be part of the Greek system at Dartmouth.