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NewsvineDorm staff and University officials last week praised AlcoholEDU, a new mandatory online alcohol education program this year for freshmen. Despite the program and the University’s dry policy during New Student Orientation (NSO), informal drinking parties have abounded at all-frosh dorms for the last week and police and staff have reported cases of excessive drinking.
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“It seems like freshmen from all over campus come to Branner,” said freshman Conal Sathi. “There has been a party every night here since Thursday.”
Junior Alex Mallory, a Resident Assistant in Branner, agreed that drinking was prevalent in her dorm.
“It doesn’t seem like they’re having a hard time accessing the alcohol,” she said. “Even if one person is bringing the beer, it seems that twenty people are drinking.”
Drinking among freshmen has not been limited to one dorm, however. Larkin freshman Pablo Jablonski said that alcohol was plentiful in his house, but added that he was not worried about the safety of his peers.
“People are usually drinking in their rooms with the door open,” he said. “If you knock on the few doors that are closed, people will open immediately. I don’t believe that people are being secretive about drinking.”
The openness surrounding drinking has considerably compromised the position of residential staff. While RAs and Resident Deans are required to uphold University alcohol rules, many strongly support the open-door policy. With the high incidence of alcohol consumption during NSO, residential staffs across campus have encouraged their residents not to hide their drinking.
Mallory said it is a challenge to maintain the University’s policy while ensuring the health and safety of her residents.
“NSO is really, really hard,” she said. “We [tell] the residents that we’re not going to police you but that you can’t drink during this week. It’s illegal for you to drink, but we’re not going to call the cops. NSO creates a real problem with establishing credibility.”
One alcohol-related issue was reported to police, according to Stanford Police Lieutenant Larry St.Denis, though he declined to elaborate on it. Dorm staffs are also reticent to detail alcohol abuse by their freshmen to maintain confidentiality and their residents’ trust
RAs have also suggested a potential lack of substance education may be partly to blame, even though the class of 2010 was the first to be required to complete the three-hour AlcoholEDU program. An email to the Substance Abuse Prevention Program at Vaden Health Center regarding the program was not returned before deadline.
Mallory said that the fact that the popular Orientation week play, “The Real World: Stanford,” was delayed until Sept. 28 because of religious conflicts did not help matters.
“The information in ‘The Real World’ is really important to get across immediately,” she said of the play, which satirizes dorm life and offers health-based suggestions. “I think it was a serious mistake not to schedule ‘The Real World’ during NSO week this year.”
Some still think the current policy is effective.
“No matter what they do, there will always be drinking,” Jablonski said. “With the current policy, people drink in moderation. Maybe if they say it’s okay to drink, people will drink more excessively. In either case, you really can’t prevent it.”