Where's the Party?

The biggest party crasher at Boston College these days is the dean of students.

Because of rising community complaints about off-campus parties, the Rev. Edward J. Hanrahan, dean of students at B.C., has been making frequent visits to the gatherings off-campus to make sure the festivities don't get out of hand.

The neighbors' complaints range from defecation on private property, sexual activity on front lawns, to vandalism and destruction of property.

Only about 1000 of B.C.'s 8600 undergraduates live off campus, but Hanrahan's visits have already accounted for 40 student probations for violations of alcohol regulations. In addition, B.C. has suspended the on-campus housing of two other students.

The new enthusiasm for off-campus social life is apparently a result of the Massachusetts drinking age of 21. Strict enforcement of the drinking age on campus has caused students to seek their weekend fun elsewhere. And because B.C. police have no jurisdiction outside the campus of the Chestnut Hill school, administrators have taken it upon themselves to see that students obey the new laws.

Some of the enforcement of the drinking age appears extreme. One off-campus student relates that a friend of legal drinking age was carded four times in one night. "He was carded at the liquor store, then entering the off-campus housing, then in his hallway and finally when he was disposing of the empties," says Kathy R. Bennett junior at Boston College.