Since the semester began there have been 27 alcohol-related calls to Haverford’s Safety and Security, and 18 hospitalizations. This averages out to a steady three calls and two hospitalizations per week. This is too much.

If you think that the figures are being blown out of proportion, here’s a closer look. In the same period of time last year, there were 18 calls, nine of which resulted in hospitalization. The previous year, the figures were eight and five. The total number of incidents so far this year has surpassed the annual figure for each academic year from 2003-2007.

We all know that drinking is part of the college experience for many students and that students drink who are under the legal drinking age. What we don’t know is why so many students this year are getting so drunk that they have to be sent to the hospital.

Our high rates of alcohol-related incidents and hospitalizations do not impact only our campus. Of Delaware County’s four ambulances, some nights this semester have necessitated three of them taking students from Haverford to the hospital. That leaves one ambulance to respond to any car accidents, house fires, or violence that occurs, and greatly affects response times. When drinking, we need to start considering the wider community.

There is clearly something rotten in the state of our social scene, and it’s something a “conversation” won’t fix. The culture can’t change in a semester, but we can set it on the right path for future classes. As a college, Haverford created JSAAPP and the Quaker Bouncers – the same sort of innovative student self-governance needs to happen again. There is no one solution; instead we must look at the different facets of the bi-college experience, and fix those that are broken.

Firstly, as a student body we need to re-address the issues of personal and collective responsibility. Students who supply alcohol at any sort of party or gathering have a responsibility to encourage others to consume it responsibly. This means sticking around once alcohol has been provided, discouraging unsafe drinking practices such as taking multiple shots of hard liquor in a short period of time, and encouraging students to watch out for themselves and for others. When providing mixed drinks, their contents should be clearly posted: some students don’t want to drink a punch that contains Everclear and some do. Students should have the right to make informed decisions about what they drink.

Most of the Haverford freshmen survey respondents obtain their alcohol from someone on their Customs team. The relationship between a Customs team and its freshmen is crucial in portraying good drinking behavior. A focus on beer instead of hard liquor, on social drinking in a safe environment, and on giving students the option of not drinking are behaviors that need to become customs.

Statistics from our Boozing in the Bi-Co survey show that eleven percent of freshman respondents across Haverford and Bryn Mawr were provided with alcohol during Customs Week. Customs Week is meant to be dry at both colleges, and for good reasons. It allows freshmen to form relationships without feeling pressured about drinking alcohol, and sets the tone for how alcohol is viewed on campus. If the dry week becomes wet, or even damp, it sets a precedent for ignoring the administration and not taking the alcohol policy seriously.

In order to show students what a working alcohol policy looks like, JSAAPP needs to take on a greater role. During Customs Week, its co-heads and members need to be up on the stage at Marshall talking to students about real-life situations. They need to better involve themselves in freshman life and talk to the freshmen about their concerns. Just as freshmen are strongly encouraged to attend Plenary, they should be strongly encouraged to attend Honor Council and JSAAPP discussions. This would better acquaint the freshmen with the alcohol policy, its causes and consequences, and better acquaint student government with the freshmen.

Additionally, discussions about alcohol should not begin and end with Customs Week. They need to continue throughout the freshman year and beyond. Students should be talking to one another about their drinking habits, what they consider normal behavior, and what they see as needing to change. Without student input, any initiative will fail.
 
While initiatives to change student drinking culture should come from the students, the administration also needs to play a role. The administration needs to decide whether their goal is to reduce underage drinking on campus or whether to reduce dangerous alcohol-induced behavior. Furthermore, the administration needs to communicate their goals and the resultant strategies to the students in a clear and concise manner.

Senior staff members need to understand from where the drinking problem originates. Though they cannot control what happened before a student comes to college, they can undertake a survey or a series of conversations with freshmen to understand why, what and how they drink. By uncovering students’ motivations, we can begin to look at how to tackle the unhealthy drinking practices currently pervading our community.

As a community, we prize self-governance and personal responsibility. Unfortunately, this recent spate of incidents, which shows no sign of decreasing, emphasizes that our culture needs a tune-up, and that we need to get serious about tackling a problem that could result in a tragedy.

Staff Editorials are the consensus opinion of the Editorial Board, whose 26 members are listed on Page 2. Rosie Dillon, Maddie Hoagland-Hanson, Sam Kaplan, Kevin O’Halloran and Peter Sturtevant stood outside of consensus.

Related articles

• PLOUT — Students Evaluate Drinking Before, After Lloyd Raid
• Freshmen Hospitalizations Reach Unprecedented Levels.
• High School Drinking Cultures
• Surveys shed unflattering light on HC alcohol consumption
• Letter to the Editor
• Pullout: History of Bi-Co Alcohol Task Force
• Letter to the Editor
• Mawrtyrs Attend Alcohol Conference at Princeton
• Boozing in the Bi-Co: Explaining the Trends
• Letter Sparks Dialogue about Alcohol Policy