“When you get to UHS [University Health Services], the disaster has already happened. We need to talk about education and training,” Gross said.

As of now, Harvard isn’t doing enough to address the issue, Gross said.

But he said a change in mentality, not a crackdown, is necessary.

Tapping a (Powder) Keg

While students say they would welcome additional social space, in the past all but the most light-handed attempts by College administration to deal with alcohol issues have been met with student resistance.

Soon after Lewis became dean in 1996, some complained that the administration was disciplining students who brought intoxicated friends to UHS.

Students have protested a zero-tolerance approach to alcohol in the first-year dorms under Lewis and Dean of Freshman Elizabeth Studley Nathans.

Most recently, students decried a ban on kegs at this year’s Harvard-Yale game tailgates, a move Lewis promoted as a measure to guard against severe alcohol related injuries and illness.

Lewis, for his part, notes that no students have died of alcohol poisoning during his tenure.

While students and masters contacted yesterday said they would support inquiry into the causes and consequences of alcohol use on campus, they differed in their judgment of the size and urgency of the problem.

Eliot House Master Lino Pertile said he doesn’t view alcohol use on campus as an overwhelming problem.

“I don’t feel that the situation is that dire,” he said, noting that his European background—he hails from Italy—may contribute to his viewpoint. “I don’t think that there is anything wrong with students drinking one beer a day,” he added.

Pertile does agree that improvement to education is overdue.

“Unfortunately, it is something that should have begun a long time ago,” he said.

Rohit Chopra ’04, the president of the Undergraduate Council, said that alcohol abuse is just one of several urgent health issues for students.