Over the past year, Princeton has been rocked by two alcohol-related deaths at nearby Rider University. In March, Gary DeVercelly was hazed to death at a Rider fraternity, and this October Justin Warfield ingested a lethal mixture of alcohol and heroin. As a result of these two tragedies, Princeton administrators have fallen under great pressure to "do something" about binge drinking. Thus far, their response has been hasty and shockingly out of touch.
Early this month, a small clique of deans and college masters came to the decision, without consulting any students, medical professionals or peer universities, that the best way to prevent University students from drinking themselves to death is to turn residential college advisers into policemen. Beginning next fall, RCAs will be responsible for enforcing University alcohol regulations. Since it is essentially impossible for underclassmen to legally consume alcohol, RCAs are being asked to try to terminate drinking in a Princeton dorm. To be fair, RCAs will not be required to report their advisees to the disciplinary authorities, but they are more than welcome to call in Public Safety to help them disperse parties.
In a sense, the administration's logic is sound. Alcohol can cause death, so if the University wants to prevent death, it should stop students from drinking. But this is a much too simplistic strategy. The people who are at risk of drinking themselves to death are in fact a relatively small, "hardcore" minority. They are not the type of people who are going to abstain just because their RCA might pop in the door and tell them to put away the Jose Cuervo. It is difficult to imagine any way to prevent Princeton's heavy drinkers from putting themselves at risk, apart from more aggressive counseling and outreach programs. If the past 30 years are any guide, limitations on youthful drinking are futile, if not counterproductive. It would take a magic wand to snuff out binge drinking at Princeton, and we just don't have one.
Yes, drinking can cause death. But since we can't effectively prevent drinking, then we better do our best to address the death part. If we could take every dangerously drunk person to McCosh, there would be less of a risk of death. This should be the main thrust of any alcohol safety campaign.
Unfortunately, the new RCA policy will seriously undermine this idea. RCAs have traditionally been charged with helping their advisees in times of crisis, such as when a friend is passed out on a Saturday night. They are approachable and trusted by advisees, so they're in a great position to respond to these emergencies. The new RCAs, however, will quickly lose their advisees trust if they behave like authority figures or policemen. If my RCA ever came to tell me to stop drinking beer in my room, I would have shut the door in her face and never talked to her again. And if I got put on probation because she called in Public Safety to break up my party, I would have probably lit her trash on fire. Luckily, my RCA didn't give a fig what went on in our room, and she remained a trusted mentor. We trusted her so much that when we were trying to decide what to do about a very drunk roommate, we sought her out, and she gave the wise advice to take him to McCosh. If only Gary or Justin's friends had my RCA around this past year.
McCosh is the key to sparing Princeton a Rider-style tragedy. When I came to Princeton, I was told that there would never be any consequences for McCoshing a drunk student. Period. Yet over the years, it has become clear to many students that this is only partially true. Students at McCosh are asked nosy questions by Public Safety, and the next morning, they are often slapped with mandatory counseling sessions. If they are transferred to PMC, as many often are, the under-worked Borough Police are brought in to interrogate them, and if in their stupor they blurt out the name of an eating club, the club can face major charges. In short, there are currently perceived costs and risks associated with taking a person to McCosh, and if Princeton is serious about avoiding Rider's pain, it must overhaul the way drunk students are handled by the medical system. And scrapping the dangerous new RCA plan wouldn't hurt either. Kent Kuran '08 is a history major from Los Alamitos, Calif. He can be reached at kkuran@princeton.edu.
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