Harvard Students Keep Beer Flowing, Defying Dean

Harvard University's student leaders are defying a dean's order to stop using college funds for alcohol served in dormitory rooms.

After the oldest and richest school in the U.S. said it will no longer release money for private parties, the Harvard Undergraduate Council continued to mete out grants of $100 or more that can be spent on alcohol, according to that body's president. The Cambridge, Massachusetts, school hasn't stopped any parties, hoping the standoff can be ended through talks, Associate Dean Judith A. Kidd said on Oct. 11.

U.S. colleges are growing less tolerant of drinking and more concerned about the consequences of abetting imbibers. Two officials at Rider University, in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, were indicted by a grand jury in August in the death of a student by alcohol poisoning during a fraternity initiation. The charges of aggravated hazing were later dropped.

At Harvard, ``the fact that the school was actually paying for unsupervised drinking is simply stupid and shouldn't have been happening in the first place,'' said David Rosenbloom, 63, the chief investigator of the federally funded Youth Alcohol Prevention Center at Boston University's School of Public Health. ``Kids have far too easy access to alcohol as it is, and they didn't need their university's help to get it.''

Rosenbloom said more schools are moving away from a ``total hands-off view toward student drinking.''

The legal drinking age in Massachusetts, and most other U.S. states, is 21, the highest in the industrialized world, according to the Web site of the World Health Organization.

`Our Money'

Harvard's Undergraduate Council, or UC, said it provided the private-party grants from funds remaining in its account. The council president, Ryan Petersen, a 21-year-old senior, said the university shouldn't have any say in the matter.

``That money is our money,'' Petersen said in a telephone interview on Oct. 11. ``The allocation of funds is completely the decision of the Undergraduate Council.''

The UC began providing money for private parties in 2003, under former Harvard President Lawrence Summers, as students and administrators sought to improve social life at the school. Last spring, the university opened a campus pub, the Cambridge Queen's Head.

``At that particular time, in that particular administration, there was an emphasis on `How can we increase student satisfaction?''' Kidd said.

David Pilbeam, who became the interim dean of Harvard College in September, announced earlier this month that he was cutting off money for private parties. The college is the Ivy League university's undergraduate school.

Abuse Found in Study

``It is quite apparent that the UC Party Grant program, in practice, has funded parties where the focus is on drinking,'' Pilbeam said in a letter to the council leaders, posted on Harvard College's Web site. ``The UC Party Grant program is at odds with the message that students, parents, faculty and administrative leaders of this community should be sending about responsible and safe alcohol use.''

A 2002 study published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol found that 31 percent of college students met criteria for a diagnosis of alcohol abuse during the previous year. The study was based on questionnaires answered by students.

Liability also played a role in Harvard's decision to cut off funding for private parties, Kidd said.

``The legal climate is changing out there,'' she said. ``We collect and distribute the money. Therefore we are responsible for making sure it is used appropriately.''

Arbitration Urged

Petersen said he proposed to administrators that an arbitrator be hired to resolve the dispute.

``Until the Undergraduate Council decides the program has to be eliminated, the program will remain in effect,'' Petersen said.

The money for private parties comes from an optional $75 activity fee for each student that raises about $450,000 a year. Kidd said the UC gives $51,000 annually for private parties. Petersen said the amount is lower, about $30,000 a year.

Students apply to the council for the grants. To qualify for the money, the students must affirm they are 21 or older and promise to obey school rules and local, state and federal laws, Petersen said.

The UC this semester dropped a policy of requiring that private parties be advertised. The location of the events still filters out, through e-mail, Kidd said.

``With the Internet, there's no such thing as a secret,'' Kidd said.

Supervised Events

Generally, the private parties aren't supervised by university employees, Kidd said. Faculty members who live in the dormitories complained that the events often draw more students than can be accommodated in a dormitory suite, Kidd said.

``They are spilling out into the hallways,'' Kidd said. ``We all agreed there was no control possible, so we were going to eliminate the program.''

Harvard will continue to pay for alcohol purchases at events hosted by student organizations and dormitory committees, Kidd said. Those parties are held in larger spaces and supervised by graduate students hired and trained by the university, she said.

Bloomberg