From the Left

/

Politics

Dartmouth's College Try

Ruth Marcus on

WASHINGTON -- Dartmouth is giving drinking a new college try. That is, the drinking problem on its campus -- and, by the way, on almost every college campus across the country.

The logical thinking of Dartmouth's mathematician president, Philip Hanlon, is that drinking -- specifically, drinking to health- and safety-threatening excess -- is not going to disappear.

But it could perhaps be reduced. So the headline of the new Dartmouth plan is to go after hard liquor because it gets students drunker, faster, and is the culprit in the vast majority of cases that land inebriated students in the emergency room.

Hard liquor will be banned at campus events, and events held by "Dartmouth College-recognized organizations." (Fraternities, that's you.) Penalties for students found in possession will be increased.

The emphasis on hard liquor makes sense -- as difficult as it will be to enforce. So Dartmouth requires "third-party security and bartenders for social events"? Students ramp up the pre-gaming -- drinking shots beforehand -- that is already the norm.

So pre-gaming becomes dicier in dorm rooms due to the threat of sanctions -- maybe even sanctions on the all-important "permanent record? Students move the fun to off-campus apartments.

 

Seriously, if these people put as much dedication into schoolwork as they do into obtaining alcohol, they'd all be Rhodes Scholars.

Which is why I was especially intrigued by the parts of the Dartmouth proposal that relate not to discouraging the alcohol consumption but to encouraging both the creation of community and the pursuit of -- dare I mention it? -- learning.

Because this is the conundrum of college students today, especially at highly selective schools such as Dartmouth (acceptance rate: 11.5 percent, 2014). They work like demons to get in -- and then, too often, fritter away too much of their time in an alcoholic haze, or nursing hangovers.

The numbers are telling: Students entering Dartmouth drink less than incoming college students nationally (72 percent non-drinkers at Dartmouth, compared with 59 percent nationally).

...continued

swipe to next page

Copyright 2015 Washington Post Writers Group

 

 

Comics

Kirk Walters Clay Bennett Gary Markstein Christopher Weyant Adam Zyglis David Horsey