Alcohol takes center stage at College forum

Author: Kathryn Flagg

In the second of two meetings scheduled for this month, Middlebury College administrators, faculty, staff and students joined community members in discussing the issue of alcohol on and off campus. The forum, designed to discuss the social life on campus in the context of College policies and enforcement protocols, featured a panel that included Director of Public Safety Lisa Boudah, Middlebury Chief of Police Tom Hanley and Mike Davidson of the Vermont Department of Liquor Control.

President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz welcomed the crowd - substantially larger than that present for the town hall meeting earlier this month - and moderated the evening's discussion, but the brunt of questions and concerns were directed to the gathered panel. While each panel member briefly explained his or her job and its relationship to alcohol on campus, the majority of the two-hour meeting was devoted to fielding questions and student comments.



Attacking the Liquor Law



Many students expressed dissatisfaction with the new interpretation of state liquor laws that they believe severely altered the social life on campus by hindering the ability of social houses to host open parties. Comments directed to Davidson questioned the wisdom of the new policy.

Davidson quickly pointed out that the College, in altering its policies, was bringing itself up to speed with state law.

"In no way could [the College] endorse underage drinking," he said. He referred to the "infamous guest list" as an avenue the College pursued so as to allow students to "still have social interactions without violating the law."

Students, however, continued to voice their opposition to last fall's policy changes.

"Even from spring of 2005 to this fall I've seen a dramatic shift in the social life on this campus," said Jessie Singleton '08.5. "Because the College is coming up to speed with this law, the social life is moving off campus."

"There's a drinking culture at this school," Singleton continued. "We're in rural, isolated Vermont. We go to a difficult institution. I think that that's, perhaps, inevitable."

Other students raised concerns that this "shift" in the College's social scene is fostering dangerous drinking habits among the student body, encouraging students to drink heavily behind closed doors and to attend off-campus parties.

"We're watching our friends come back in cars that had drunk drivers," said one student, worried about the cost of increased off-campus drinking.

"Though you are enforcing the law," said another, "you're putting students in a position that jeopardizes their safety."



The Police Perspective



Students also directed questions to Hanley, who was on hand from the Middlebury Police Department to volunteer his perspective on alcohol on campus.

"This year," he said, "we've had an increase of alcohol-fueled events." Hanley noted that this increase in contacts has been coupled with a new shift in complaints and interactions. In previous years, said Hanley, the majority of police run-ins with College students were precipitated by complaints from townspeople in residential areas.

This year, however, contacts have been "predominantly pedestrian" - a stark departure from earlier trends. Hanley pointed to the "College Street corridor" as a particularly troublesome spot. This year, he said, students have kicked in windows and committed small thefts.

"We found an intoxicated student lying on the sidewalk with a bottle of booze," he said. When there are problems, Hanley said, "The squeaky wheel will get the grease."

Hanley noted that he is "not naive enough to think that students never drank before." The difference this year, he clarified, is that the police department is "seeing more numbers of students walking around with bottles in the middle of the road."

In response to student concerns regarding the number of contacts this year, Hanley frankly remarked that the police are acting under a state mandate. "If we find somebody who is intoxicated we can't turn our back on them," he said. "Not to act exposes us to a lot of liability."

Hanley also noted, however, that alcohol-fueled contacts with students distract the police department from other pressing law enforcement requirements in town - including drugs, assault, burglaries and vandalism. Transporting a student to the Marble Valley Regional Correctional Facility, said Hanley, requires eight man-hours from the department - time he said could spent in other arenas.

"I don't need that," he said. "We don't need that. We care about you guys. We really do. But we'd rather be doing something else."

When the department is tied up with mandates but "the drinkers are falling right in our laps in the middle of town," he said, the department is unable to focus on other matters.

"Figure it out," he said towards the end of the meeting. "It takes us away from a whole bunch of stuff that, believe me, we'd rather be doing."



A New Direction Defined



As the two-hour meeting wound to a close, Assistant Treasurer Tom Corbin announced that the College is currently working to expand permanent alcohol licensing on campus. The College, said Corbin, is attempting to license spaces like the Ross, Atwater and Proctor Dining Halls, as well as the top floor of the Kirk Alumni Center and expanded spaces within the McCullough Student Center.

"By setting these places up to be licensed," he said, "we can reduce the cost to student groups to hold functions in those spaces." Corbin also noted that permanent licenses in these spaces would facilitate catered, sponsored parties on campus.

Several students present, however, still expressed their frustration with changing policies. "I feel that you're doing your job," said one student to the panel members. "But if this law that you're enforcing - if its purpose was to keep kids safe - it's failed. What can we do besides writing a letter to our representative to improve this situation?"

While the meeting, at its conclusion, left these concerns largely unresolved for many of the students present, such comments prompted suggestions that the student body should begin to address ways to avoid irresponsible drinking and to increase personal accountability. This may, in fact, provide a new direction for the on-going debate.