Clarify Alcohol Policy

The College's policy on alcohol can be summed up as a simple plea from the administration: "Please don't die on us." Administrators, including Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68, stress that the main goal of the College's alcohol policy--consistent with state and federal laws--is to keep students from drinking themselves to death. One of the most effective rules the College has to ensure no one forgoes medical attention after drinking too much is the promise that students will suffer no disciplinary action if they go to Stillman Infirmary at University Health Services (UHS) for an alcohol-related illness.

Unfortunately, this policy is neither consistently enforced by the administration nor well-communicated to students. Although it is common practice for UHS to alert administrators when a students is admitted to Stillman Infirmary or another hospital, the reason for the visit is not supposed to be released. Yet The Crimson's recent investigation of College alcohol policy has found that this guarantee of confidentiality is often allowed to slide. Administrators often do find out the reason why students are admitted to UHS through the Harvard University Police Department, which may transport students to the hospital. Sometimes UHS personnel call an administrator to inform them of the cause. In other cases administrators find out from the students themselves, who feel they must tell the truth under questioning or incur the wrath of the Administrative Board.

These deviations from policy are not mere loopholes or bureaucratic inconveniences; they threaten campus health by making students far less likely to seek medical attention from UHS when they need it. Indeed, according to a poll conducted by The Crimson last month, almost one-third of undergraduates think they are "likely" or "very likely" to be disciplined by the administration if they are admitted to UHS for an alcohol-related illness.

We agree with Lewis that the most important consideration in alcohol policy is student safety. The no-fault policy for those who go to UHS due to alcohol intoxication is a good policy that needs to be more consistently enforced across both the College and UHS. However, this policy is only effective to the extent that students trust it; every time students hesitate to seek medical attention for themselves or others, an alcohol-related death or serious injury becomes increasingly likely. To be effective, this policy must be accompanied by a substantive guarantee of confidentiality; intense questioning by a proctor or a group of administrators in a disciplinary environment still creates the perception of punishment, whether or not the students are eventually disciplined.

Administrators maintain that it is important to know whether a student has a drinking problem in order to be able to recommend counseling or other services. Although we understand the administration's concern, we believe such programs should be run by UHS itself rather than by the College. Certainly, if students prefer to go through the College in seeking help for a drinking problem, they should not be prevented from doing so. But the dual role the administrators juggle as guardians of student health and enforcers of the rules may make students wary of seeking their help.

Furthermore, the College must be more clear with students about what confidentiality protections they have. For example, if a proctor, tutor or other officer of the University asks a student whether he or she went to UHS for an alcohol-related illness, it is not clear to many students whether they would be required to answer. Proctors may ask anything they like, but students should be unambiguously assured by the College that they may decline to answer without fear of disciplinary action. If students who go to UHS might expect a conversation with an administrator but are not in danger of probation or a heavier punishment, they should be made aware of that fact.

The College cannot afford to ignore inconsistencies in a policy whose effectiveness depends on student perception. Harvard must make sure that students and officers of the University know the policy and that it is enforced consistently.

Otherwise, there will come a night when students are forced to guess whether a friend is sick enough to run the risk of going to UHS. And there will come a night when these students will guess dead wrong.