Since students arrived back on campus for the Fall 2015 Semester the new alcohol policy has been widely discussed. Some students are even going as far as trying to get it banned through petitioning, while others remain indifferent or somewhere in between.
So, what exactly is the alcohol policy, and how will it affect students at HWS?
1) The alcohol policy bans hard liquor on campus. 87 percent of students on campus are under 21 years old. This means that it is illegal for the majority of students to have hard alcohol, regardless of the policy. Therefore, this new rule only affects 13 percent of students. The repercussions for a student under 21 in possession of hard alcohol will be the same as they were last year. Now, students 21 and older can also get in trouble for the possession of hard alcohol as well.
2) In predominantly first-year residence halls (Jackson, Potter, Rees, Sherrill, and Hirshson) all alcohol is prohibited. This means that the few students over 21 in those dorms are not allowed to have alcohol. For everyone else the rules remain the same. It was illegal last year and it is illegal this year.
3) Students above the age of 21 are only allowed to have 24 beers or two one liter bottles of wine. A student and their roommate can have a total of 48 beers (or 4 bottles of wine) in their room at one time. Why 24 beers? HWS reviewed other school’s alcohol policies, and 24 was the common limit of beer allowed.
4) The level system is gone. If a student neglects to follow the policy, they will meet with a member of the administration and a sanction will be decided based on the student’s judicial history.
5) The “in the presence of” rule is gone. This means students who are not “of-age” can be in a room where other students who are 21 and over are drinking. They will no longer get in trouble for being in the presence of alcohol.
6) All HWS social events need to have a third party supplier. This includes all fraternities, theme houses and student organizations at the colleges.
Why did the new alcohol policy get put in place this semester?
According to Dean Streeter, Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs, HWS has been considering this policy for many years. Its main purposes are to foster a culture of responsibility and respect on campus and put fewer students at risk.
The administration does not want students to prioritize drinking over school. They believe that cracking down on drinking will lower rates of students skipping class, reduce the number of hungover students in class, and raise student engagement in class. The administration wants to promote a culture of learning, not partying.
In addition, the colleges want campus to be safe for everyone. This correlates with their effort last year to create a culture of respect. The administration does not want students to be harmed by their own decisions or the decisions of those around them, due to high levels of intoxication.
The Colleges hope that banning hard alcohol will lower student harm. Students rarely get transported for drinking wine or beer, but hard alcohol frequently puts students in ambulances. Drinking to an excessive amount correlates with students getting into fights and vandalizing. The administration wants students to start making better decisions and stay out of harm’s way. These decisions may relate to sex and/or correlate with the issue of sexual misconduct on campus, but that is not explicitly why the new policy was put in place. It was considered many years before HWS was reported to the U.S. Department of Education for issues regarding sexual assault.
Colleges all over the country are banning hard alcohol. HWS is the third of the “New York 6” to do so. Please tell us what you think of the new policy in the comment section! Will it change anything on campus?