Dartmouth College recently released a statement that bans the presence of hard alcohol, along with other changes to school policy, in an effort to curb the party-school image that Dartmouth has held in the past.

Due to protests by the student body and through research of similar policies, Dartmouth administration outlined a plan that addresses three main points, including eliminating hard alcohol on campus, addressing sexual assault cases and improving inclusivity, according to John Damianos, a student active in the Moving Dartmouth Forward movement.

Research by the Moving Dartmouth Forward campaign guided the decision-making and planning of President Philip Hanlon, said Barbara Will, a professor at Dartmouth and a member of the campaign that Hanlon’s plan was focused on.

One of the major forces behind the decision to ban hard alcohol came from research done by the committee that focuses on alcohol policies on other college campuses and the reduction of the number of alcohol-related medical transports to the hospital, Will said.

However, students have had mixed reactions about various parts of the plan, and the largest outcry has been against the hard alcohol ban, Damianos said.

“Students don’t tend to like being told what to do, but now there is a heightened awareness about the issue,” said Rob McClung, a professor at Dartmouth.

Damianos added that students should look at the research that went into the decision, saying, “I am encouraging students to look at the eight months of research of the steering committee.”

One other very important change that will be taking place at Dartmouth by the fall of 2016 is a drastic change to the residential areas at the school. The college will be making adjustments to better transition from freshman year cluster housing to more of a sense of community and better learning environments as upperclassmen, Damianos said.

“We envision a campus that is more inclusive, where faculty and grad students play more influential roles in the lives of undergraduates, where students learn and grow outside the classroom and where we have more options for social life and community interaction,” Hanlon said in his speech addressing the changes in policy at the Ivy League school.

When it comes to addressing sexual assault on campus, comprehensive four-year sexual assault prevention programs will be a mandatory requirement for all students at Dartmouth. In addition, all faculty and staff will be trained to be first-responders in which they will be able to assist students in the event that they need it, as well as other crisis centers and online programs designed to inform and benefit students, Damianos said.

Another aspect of the plan that Hanlon has set in motion is the idea of strengthening academic rigor on campus, which, contrary to the popular student belief, does not mean making classes harder, Damianos said.

This idea stems from the idea that the social scenes that students are involved with at night are affecting their ability to perform in the daytime. This plan does not mean making classes more intense or difficult for students, but it could mean potentially moving desirable or more difficult classes to earlier times of day in an effort to prevent students from putting their social lives ahead of their academic ones, Damianos said.

Published on February 5, 2015 at 12:01 am

Contact Erin: eemcdona@syr.edu