“Even three or four years ago, students would be caught underage drinking and they’d sort of just be shooed along,” Sankey said. “Now I think that any time that ... anyone under the age of 21 is noticed drinking alcohol, very often now they are referred to the courts.”
Harvard’s Administrative Board has never punished a student simply for drinking underage, said Ellison—who is the Secretary of the Ad Board. But the College, in an effort to align its policies with state law, has tried to avoid funding events where underage drinking is likely to occur. For example, in 2007, the College terminated the Undergraduate Council’s “Party Grants” program, which gave students money to host parties with alcohol.
“[T]he UC has not assumed responsibility ... for verifying that underage students will not be reimbursed for purchasing alcohol,” wrote then-Interim Dean of the College David Pilbeam in an open letter at the time.
At Harvard, these stipulations have had effects on how drinking is treated on campus. This March, the semiannual Pforzheimer Golf event was canceled after House Masters Nicholas A. Christakis and Erika L. Christakis ’86 reviewed the College’s alcohol policy and determined that the event did not fit with the statement’s intent.
“I think that the alcohol policy as a whole is designed to keep our student body as safe and healthy as we can, but also there are legal limitations on what we are allowed to do,” Pfoho House Committee Co-Chair Graham M. Frankel ’12 said in an interview at the time. “Harvard doesn’t shield us from the fact that we’re not allowed to serve alcohol to people under 21.”
Changes on a state and local level have also affected many event policies. Last spring, the Cambridge License Commission decided to stop issuing hard liquor licenses to events hosted by HoCos, such as stein clubs or formals. In the wake of this decision, the College announced last spring that only beer and wine would be served at on-campus events. This spring, the College decided to ban hard alcohol from on-campus formals as well.
“I’ve suspected that a number of the more elite institutions and the cities that house these institutions are ramping up enforcement issues,” Lake said. “There’s less willingness to tolerate ‘Animal House’ culture than there was 20 years ago.”
PLACING RESPONSIBILITY
Beyond the need to keep drinking practices on campus within the bounds of state law, universities must worry about their own legal complicity when drinking goes wrong, regardless of age or location of those consuming the alcohol.
“Alcohol is the biggest risk factor on a college campus,” Lake said.
It is events like those at Northwestern and MIT that College officials cite in their discussions about safe drinking habits. And while such cases provide stark reminders of the dangers to student health and well-being that alcohol may pose, the pecuniary and legal consequences of these incidents should not be underestimated.
Many of the changes in policies around House events stemmed from shifts in who might be allowed to sign the liquor licenses, and who, as a result, would be seen as the liable “host” under Massachusetts law. While it remains unclear who could be blamed if a student were hurt at a Stein Club or formal, HoCo leaders say that they feel responsible for events they throw.
“In Mather, we are instructed by our House Masters and our administrators and even prior HoCos that we are responsible for the safety of the House residents,” Mather HoCo Co-Chair Andrew F. Iannone ’12 said in an interview in March.
Beyond House-sponsored events, student groups—both officially recognized clubs and off-campus, unrecognized groups such as final clubs and fraternities—must work with the University to understand how to minimize risk.
As James F. Mosher—a California-based lawyer who specializes in alcohol policy—explained, universities like Harvard may avoid official relationships with such off-campus groups because they might be held liable despite not having adequate ability to survey and control the environment.
“I never wanted to have responsibility over something I had no oversight for,” former Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71 said.
And occasionally things do go wrong—at both on and off campus events—though no recent Harvard tragedies compare to the deaths on other campuses. When there is an alcohol-related problem at an event hosted by a student group, Dean of Student Life Suzy M. Nelson often intervenes. As she calls the leaders of these groups into her office, she seeks to have an “educational” conversation, focusing on alcohol management at events.
In one such meeting earlier this year, a student organization met with Nelson to discuss dealing with the group’s relationship with alcohol. But within the framework of this discussion, she also handed them material explaining the financial penalties that Northwestern had incurred after the death of a student in an alcohol-related incident and information about the MIT fraternity death. The discussion was about health and safety, but liability, as it often does, loomed in the background.
—Staff writer Monica M. Dodge can be reached at mdodge@college.harvard.edu.
—Staff writer Stephanie B. Garlock can be reached at sgarlock@college.harvard.edu.