Text of Jewett's Letter

I write through you to reply to the resolution of the Undergraduate Council concerning the decision to ban beer kegs from the freshman dormitories. I assume that you will pass my comments on to the Council.

First let me begin by agreeing with one of the resolution's points. It would have been better if we had consulted the Council and informed them of our plans before implementing the decision. The reason this was not done is that the decision was made during the January period while the Council is not in session. The Freshman Dean's Office felt that we should begin the new rules with the start of the term, and I agreed with that timing because there had already been some serious incidents where kegs had been present. In the future, however, I will make every effort to inform the Council or its appropriate committees and to seek advice before implementing a decision of this kind.

On some of the other points in the resolution, however. I simply cannot agree with the Council's logic. The College has both the right and the legal responsibility to set appropriate rules for its dormitories and to require that students meet both. College and legal standards as far as possible. In the case of kegs, I find it hard to justify permitting them in dormitories which are essentially 100 percent populated by students below the legal drinking age. Kegs are almost by definition a part of large group activities, not private activities restricted to a single room or suite. One could well argue that we should be prohibiting all alcohol from freshman dorms, and we have, in fact, considered that possibility. That we have not done so is in part a gesture of respect both to students' privacy and to the fact that we could not enforce such a prohibition without inordinate interference with that privacy, Kegs, however, are frequently, if not always, associated with loud, semi-public parties which seem to us quite clearly to be beyond the limits which we can tolerate. Frankly, there is some feeling that the ban might also be appropriate for the houses, but here we held back because at least some students there could legally have liquor.

I cannot accept the argument that banning kegs will automatically turn students to hard liquor and off-campus drinking spots. If it does so, we indeed have a serious problem, but even then the solution is surely not to condone huge amounts of beer. Unfortunately, the law does not permit us to utilize alcohol as the organizing motif of social life, and this is particularly true for freshmen, all of whom are underage.

In conclusion, I have to say that the College's legal and general responsibilities simply do not permit us the luxury of supporting the use of alcohol by minors or of ignoring flagrant abuse of the law. Kegs in freshman dormitories seemed clearly to fall within the bounds of unacceptable activity. I understand that freshmen and the Council may disagree with this position, but after all, it is the College and its representatives who are held accountable under the law and thus who must set what seem to them reasonable standards.