Tufts students are no longer alone in facing harsher measures targeting alcohol abuse, as Dartmouth College's local police department has unveiled a new enforcement strategy to combat a perceived rise in underage drinking on campus.
In a Feb. 4 meeting with Dartmouth's Greek life community leaders in Hanover, New Hampshire, Hanover Police Chief Nicholas Giaccone announced a new strategy of instating compliance checks at fraternities to reduce underage drinking.
The proposed checks would allow the Hanover Police Department to send unaffiliated undercover agents into Dartmouth fraternities to pose as underage individuals attempting to procure alcohol.
In the event that their attempts succeed, the agents can give evidence to the Hanover police and create grounds for prosecuting the implicated fraternity.
The new policy met with strong opposition from the student body and Greek organizations on campus in the days following the announcement.
The Dartmouth Student Assembly on Feb. 9 passed a resolution stating the need for a reevaluation of the Hanover Police Department's proposed enforcement strategy.
Giaccone announced the next day a delay in the execution of the policy and the compliance checks in order to allow different community groups to engage in a dialogue about underage drinking.
"The town shares with the College the goal of reducing the risks to student health and safety posed by excessive alcohol consumption," Giaccone said in the Feb. 10 press release. "From the statements made in recent days, it is clear that the Greek Leadership Council and other involved student groups also share this goal and are committed to working energetically to achieve harm reduction."
Zachary Gottlieb, president of the Interfraternity Council at Dartmouth, highlighted the proactive approach taken by the Greek community in engaging with the Hanover police.
"There are a lot of conversations happening," Gottlieb told the Daily. "Many are internal, but we have also branched out to the student assembly. This is an issue that will affect the entire student body."
Gottlieb added that many fraternities are now consistently requiring students to show their Dartmouth identification cards to gain entrance into an event.
"Individual organizations are being more vigilant, making sure that they're on top of everything, and taking greater responsibility for students and guests," Gottlieb said.
Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman pointed out that although changes in official alcohol policies can help to curb student drinking, these are just stopgap measures, and a change in the drinking culture itself is the only way to permanently decrease unsafe drinking.
"While we can control the public distribution of alcohol to a great extent, the choices that students make in the privacy of their own rooms will always be there for them to make," he said.
Dartmouth, unlike Tufts, does not have its own campus police force. It has a Department of Safety and Security, which is not made up of sworn police officers.
This factor makes a significant difference in dealing with alcohol−related issues, according to Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) Captain Mark Keith and senior Sam Pollack, president of the Tufts Interfraternity Council.
"Having fully trained police officers on campus [is] a great benefit to the community in all areas of public safety," Keith said.
Pollack added that cooperation between TUPD and members of Greek organizations on campus is integral to student safety at Greek events.
"At Tufts, we benefit a lot by having a police force that works closely with Greeks and the administration … Cooperation allows for success," Pollack said. "TUPD and the administration are very supportive of us, and their main goal is to cooperate with us in a realistic fashion to ensure that everyone is safe."
Keith also pointed out that TUPD has a certain amount of discretion in handling cases involving underage drinking.
The internal possession law in New Hampshire allows the police to charge intoxicated underage individuals with illegal possession, which often leads to arrest. Giaccone cited statistics of alcohol−related arrests on campus in his Feb. 4 announcement as an impetus for the new enforcement policy.
There is no internal possession law in Massachusetts. "If you are under the influence, you cannot be arrested," Keith said.
In cases of extreme intoxication, however, students can be sent to the hospital and will face disciplinary actions by the university.
Although there has been a relatively steady increase in the number of Tufts Emergency Medical Services (TEMS) calls over the past five years, the increase in severity of the calls is more troubling, according to Reitman.
"What is more alarming is the percentage of those TEMS calls where the level of dangerous drinking has been dramatically high and where my staff has had to call families because we were worried about the student's well−being," he said.
