No Small Change

The Trustee Initiative on Alcohol Abuse has become a key part of campus life this year, bringing with it an aggressive and well-funded campaign to reduce binge drinking at Princeton.

But despite a hefty grant from the trustees to fund non-alcoholic social events and escalated penalties to deter underage drinking on campus, some remain skeptical about whether the initiative's goal of eradicating alcohol abuse on campus was realistic.

"The initiative technically is trying to limit drinking — and it is not. In that sense it has to be somewhat of a failure," Mathey College RA Henley Holmes '00 said. "I'm not really sure they're ever going to affect the drinking patterns of the average Princeton student."

Based on his experiences as an RA in Butler College, Jon Kent-Uritam '00 argued that the initiative may be falling short of its goals. "I haven't really seen too much of a change," he said. "The only thing that really sticks in my mind is the Jon Stewart thing. Besides that, I haven't seen too much of a difference."

The Trustee Initiative Grant Committee already has distributed about three-quarters of the $100,000 earmarked for non-alcoholic activities such as the Stewart performance. Most of that money has been put toward planning evening events for Thursdays and Saturdays — which the administration has determined to be the largest drinking nights on campus.

"The reports we've received have been that the events have been very successful," said Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Students Thomas Dunne, specifically citing the high turnout.

University Board of Trustees president Robert Rawson '66 said the alternative events are part of the trustees' effort to end abusive drinking. "We would like people to understand that binge drinking has no place as part of the social scene, and it should be dealt with in moderation," he said.

Though the events may be attracting students, some RAs said they believe the efforts have failed to significantly reduce drinking.

Fletcher Foti '01, an assistant RA in Rockefeller College, said the Stewart performance did little more than delay some students' drinking plans. "Basically everyone I talked to went to Jon Stewart and then to the 'Street,' " he said.

Kent-Uritam said he felt the Stewart show may have been able to reduce campus drinking that one evening, but its effectiveness — and the impact of the initiative in general — was limited.

"It started late enough that it may have for that night maybe cut down a little bit on going to the 'Street,' " Kent-Uritam said, adding, however, that he did not believe the event was worth its $25,000 price tag to reduce drinking at the 'Street' for just one night.

Nevertheless, Aime Scott '01, an RA in Mathey College who also serves on the grant committee, said the performance still yielded positive effects.

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"The Jon Stewart show was critiqued because a handful of people came drunk. People have said, 'What happens if someone comes drunk?' In a sense, it has curbed the drinking," Scott said, explaining that it was better that students drank only before and after the event rather than the entire night.

Dean of Undergraduate Students Kathleen Deignan said student criticism of initiative-funded events demonstrates a lack of understanding of the project's goals. "If we evaluate the success of these events on the basis of a handful of individuals who might have come intoxicated, we're missing the point in a big way," Deignan said. "At least they weren't doing that while they were at these events."

Scott also said she believes students would not criticize the initiative as draconian if they really thought about how it had affected them. "Nothing has been done to stop people from drinking, only stuff has been done to supplement what's there," she said.

Though some RAs may not yet be seeing concrete results, Deignan encouraged patience. "I think it would be unrealistic if the goals were to transform the culture at Princeton," she said. "That was never the goal. The goal was to make everybody own the problem — not just some set of administrators."

Deterrent

A second aspect of the trustees' effort to curb binge drinking has been the implementation of more severe penalties for alcohol-related violations. Under the new policy, the first serving or procuring alcohol violation — which before this year earned students a dean's warning — is now punishable by three months probation.

The second violation results in nine months probation and 50 hours of campus service and the third violation leads to suspension from the University.

Deignan said fewer students have been punished for alcohol violations this year. By March 1, 40 students had received alcohol-related citations. Last year, by the same time, 81 students had been cited — possibly indicating that the tougher penalties are having an impact.

"It's a pretty dramatic drop, but one doesn't know," Deignan said. "I caution everyone to look at those statistics over time rather than just in any one snapshot year."

Bishop Frederick Borsch '57, chair of the Trustee Committee on Student Life, Health and Athletics, said he is pleased with the new disciplinary rules. "I think more attention has been paid to such things as where alcohol is being served on campus," he said.

USG vice president Spence Miller '02 said he believed the revised punishment scale serves as an effective deterrent to student drinking. "People are more cognizant of the fact that there are stiffer penalties out there," he said. "There's more likelihood of getting suspended than there was before. I think students don't want to risk their future."

Foti said he has noticed fewer alcohol-related discipline cases this year while serving as an assistant RA, but added that he and other students still feel the escalated punishments may be too severe.

"People that get in trouble over a technicality get in more trouble than they should because there isn't anything less than disciplinary probation that can happen to them," he said.

Rockefeller College RA Brett Sedgewick '01 said he does not believe the tougher penalties have had any effect on campus drinking. "I think it's foolish to think that imposing people with a stiffer fine is going to stop them from drinking," he said. "You have to get at the root of the problem."

Associate Dean of Undergraduate Students Marianne Waterbury, however, said the administration was not expecting the new rules to bring dramatic changes, especially in the first year.

"Nobody ever thought that the penalties alone would change the whole culture of excessive drinking," Waterbury said. "It seems to me if the only thing you do is impose rules, it's a sure invitation for people to break them."

To accompany the non-alcoholic social events and new disciplinary policy, the administration launched an anti-drinking campaign — which included placing several ads in The Daily Princetonian. As part of the program, the administration will also put up "a series of posters designed to debunk myths about students who drink excessively," Deignan said.

Director of Communications Justin Harmon '78, who is coordinating the ad project, said the goal of the campaign is to reduce binge drinking by altering student perceptions of campus life.

"Basically, the premise is that students on campuses — including Princeton — tend to drink up to established norms," Harmon said. "People make assumptions about what other students are doing, and they tend to modify their own behavior so it fits the norm they perceive."

Harmon noted that a similar campaign at the University of Arizona was able to lower the number of students engaging in binge drinking.

Harmon said the ads would be visible during freshman week next year, but he added that he is not expecting dramatic changes in students' drinking habits.

Despite student criticism, Rawson maintained the initiative would continue. "I think the most important thing is that we don't intend to diminish the dedication to making the initiative work," he said. "Our whole intent is to get [students to] buy in from the campus community to make the initiative work."