A Crackdown on Drinking?

At Harvard, students have always had a cavalier attitude toward restrictions on alcohol.

One University administrator recalls an incident in which a student stood up in a College dining hall and invited students--regardless of age--to purchase tickets for an upcoming "booze cruise."

"Remember," the student said, "in Massachusetts you need two forms of fake ID."

But several college administrators, pointing to a growing number of alcohol-related crimes and injuries on campus, say they are finding it increasingly difficult to see the humor in such an attitude.

Both Harvard police and officials of University Health Services (UHS) say it is now routine for them to handle several calls each weekend concerning students who are injured or have become unconscious as a result of overindulgence in alcohol.

And College officials say they are increasingly aware of the consequences of campus drinking. According to Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III, more than 95 percent of Harvard's disciplinary incidents--including date rapes, vandalism and fights--are related to alcohol.

Officials from many branches of the University--from house masters to health officials to police officers--are beginning to question whether the University should shift gears in its approach to student alcohol use.

"Alcohol is the biggest health problem of this generation," says Lowell House Master William H. Bossert '59. "But students just don't seem to see that. They just aren't impressed by that."

Harvard currently has an "umbrella" policy on alcohol that attempts to respect students' right to privacy. No explicit rules exist for parties that stay private, but once a party exceeds a certain size or noise level, officials consider it "public" and may shut it down.

"The policy in the past has always been `what ever you do in your own room is OK, as long as it doesn't go out into the hall and affect others,'" says UHS Director David S. Rosenthal '49.

But in recent weeks, many students have complained that College officials are cracking down on parties that would previously have escaped notice.

At several "private" parties, Harvard police have checked for ID's, and asked underage students to leave. And the efforts of liquor stores to deliver kegs have also come under close scrutiny.

Three weeks ago, a delivery van was towed because of an invalid registration. The following week, police threatened to arrest a driver for having a photocopy of his registration and not the original.

The strict enforcement has left local retailers saying that delivering to Harvard students is not worth the hassle.

"I don't need the shit," says one local liquor dealer. "I'm not losing my license for eight bucks [per keg]."

"They [Harvard officials] are too powerful for a small businessman like me to ever deal with. You're adults and you shouldn't be treated like kids. That's ridiculous," another retailer says.

College administrators deny any explicit changes in policy, but acknowledge that they may be more conscious of alcohol-related disturbances.

"What we saw a lot of this year were a number of private parties which were spilling out into the hallways, making themselves public," explains Epps. "Subsequently, as the police got complaints about noise, they went over and on a few occasions found people drinking who appeared to be underage, and they asked for ID."

And in several recent court cases, explains Police Chief Paul E. Johnson, police officers have been held liable for deaths resulting from their negligence.

"Police officers have become very aware of their liability," says Epps. "That is why police behavior has become much more cautious and strict."

"It's not a change in policy, but you might be finding that officers are much less apt to look the other way," says Johnson.

Students are most likely to see this heightened police awareness reflected in stricter enforcement of drinking laws. Although the police will not "be knocking on anyone's doors," Johnson says, they will continue to check for ID's more frequently than in the past.

And enforcement is likely to be especially strict in Harvard Yard, where 99 percent of the residents are underage, Johnson says.

Fake ID Crackdown

Police are also likely to focus on the widespread use of fake ID's to obtain alcohol, Johnson says.

Under a new state law, underage drinkers can have their driver's license suspended for up to six months if they are caught with fake ID. Last week, state officials and liquor retailers vowed to use the new law to step up enforcement of the drinking age.

And last Sunday night, Dean of the College L. Fred Jewett '57 announced to the Undergraduate Council that the University would be making confiscation of fake ID's a new priority.

Johnson points to a case last year as an example of the widespread problems with fake ID's at Harvard. In February, a first-year student was charged with mass production of driver's licenses. He received three years probation and was ordered to pay $1000 in court costs after he admitted there were "sufficient facts" for his conviction.

The student had enough material to make about 50 ID's, police say.

"When you see things like that, you start paying particular attention to it--apparently it is quite widespread here," Johnson says. "The University is going to be taking a very serious view on ID's. It's another giant step."

Efforts to curb underage drinking on campus are nothing new. Two years ago, College officials decided to ban kegs from dormitories in Harvard Yard. But College officials are still debating the effectiveness of those policies.

Rather than cutting down on drinking overall, some officials say, banning kegs encourages students to switch to hard liquor. And stringent restrictions often encourage students to do their drinking alone or in small groups, they say.

"It certainly has led to drinking in small groups," says Henry C. Moses, the dean of first-year students. "But we were always alert to the risk that eliminating kegs in the Yard may lead to people saying `if we can't have kegs then we'll have hard liquor.'"

But although drinking habits may have changed, Moses says he has no evidence that the keg ban has led to a rise in alcoholic tendencies among years.

And he says that the ban has significantly cut the number of problem parties in first-year dorms.

"The number of large parties in the Yard that cross the boundaries of civilized behavior are way down," says Moses.

Raising the drinking age to 21 has also made it difficult for the College to enforce a uniform alcohol policy, says Bossert. Since some students are able to drink and others are not, police cannot simply concentrate on parties that go out of control, he says.

And because the college can no longer sponsor social functions that include alcohol, students are more likely to drink on their own, he says.

"Raising the drinking age has really done us in," says Bossert. He says Harvard needs to change its "blink with what you do in your own room" attitude.

"The existing laws drive people into the closet. There is something very anti-social about that," says Currier House Master Gregory Nagy, adding that he and other masters have witnessed a growing amount of "underground drinking."

`Maturation Rite'

In the past, some college officials have suggested experimentation with alcohol is an unavoidable "maturation rite," Johnson says. Adherents of this view cite surveys tracking college classes over a four-year period, which suggest that although students tend to drink excessively during their first years, consumption decreases by their senior years.

"Some people say this isn't a drinking problem--they say that is just what freshmen are supposed to do," Rosenthal says.

But, says Johnson, attitudes are rapidly changing.

"I think there is much less tolerance of that [philosophy]," Johnson says. "Instead of letting people learn the hard way, there is now a greater push to educate them away from that."

And the real change that needs to occur, suggests Rosenthal, is the fundamental attitude students have about drinking.

"Students are not drinking to relax," says Rosenthal. "They drink to get drunk, and that is when you lead to problems."