College Tightens Alcohol Restrictions

Students seeking a nip of gin or an advertised party will have to look outside Harvard’s 12 undergraduate Houses after administrators presented a new standard alcohol policy for the College yesterday.

University Hall officials unveiled a new document before the Committee on House Life yesterday, stopping the days of hard alcohol at House Committee’s (HoCo) stein clubs, ending advertising for private parties, and moving up—by as much as three weeks—the date by which all parties must be registered with houses.

New mandates include the presence of a Beverage Authorization Team or police detail at all registered parties serving alcohol and greater oversight by House masters and tutors.

Prior to the measure’s enactment, alcohol protocol varied greatly among the Houses. The document was presented at the meeting as a collaborative effort between the College Dean’s office, the Office of General Counsel, HoCo’s, and House masters.

EVERY TUB ON ITS OWN BOTTOM

Administrators and students agreed that there was a need for consistent standards while maintaining the House’s autonomy and their traditional sense of community.

“We currently have 15 different standards, but they need to be more consistent because the law is the same everywhere,” said Associate Dean for Residential Life Suzy M. Nelson. “We wanted to align Houses to fit within certain parameters.”

Adams House master Sean G. Palfrey ’67 said that while the Massachusetts state law is invariable, its application in the College’s House system must not hamper the Houses’ distinct environments.

“The way we actually do things within a family should be a little different,” he said. “We do want some flexibility.”

According to UC Vice President, Randall S. Sarafa ’09, portions of the document are vague and invite the potential for drastically different interpretations, thus defeating the document’s central aim of standardizing the house’s policies.

For example, the document stipulates that tutors and other House staff members must “check in” on private parties at least once during the course of the night.

“I could see the potential for misinterpretation of that clause,” he said “In some Houses, a House master...might interpret that to be knocking on the door, turning on the lights, and walking around.”

The restrictions have already caused some perturbed reactions among students. Controversy has been brewing in Mather House this week over the new restrictions on advertising private parties.

“This came as a huge surprise to the upperclassmen, especially for the seniors who are accustomed to [the email list] Mather-open as a [place for] open discourse,” said Matthew R. Greenfield ’08 who sent a letter of protest over the House open list after the policies were announced.

“As a community of friends we use Mather-open to invite friends and neighbors to the goings on of the House.”

ENFORCEMENT WORRIES

The newest change by the College administration is the latest in a slew of alcohol-related policy changes that are designed to more strictly regulate alcohol use, and may reflect a shift away in the balance between encouraging responsible drinking habits while avoiding the legal woes that stem from underage alcohol consumption.

“Harvard is an educational institution, and we want to help people learn,” said Palfrey of the need to ease the transition from alcohol abstinence to legal drinking.

Although the document is a “working draft” and not officially in the College’s Handbook for Students—which outlines guidelines for student behavior at the College—Nelson, the associate dean, said that the purpose of the policy is to clarify the legal ramifications for both the students and the administration.

“It is the students hosting the parties who will be responsible,” she said.

UC President Matthew L. Sundquist ’09 expressed concern that students might be unfairly held accountable to the unofficial document.

“How do you enforce a rule that’s not a part of the handbook yet?” he asked. “You have policies that are part of the working draft which are at odds with what’s in the student handbook.”

The measure will be voted on by the Faculty Council, the governing body of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. If the policy is adopted, it will be added to the handbook.

—Staff Writer Abby D. Phillip can be reached at adphill@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff Writer Charles J. Wells can be reached at wells2@fas.harvard.edu.