Community Council Update: Council Approves Hard Alcohol Exception

On Tuesday, March 9, Community Council met with the Mill’s administration to discuss whether to continue to allow the social house to serve Purple Jesus, a mixed drink with vodka and grape powder served at Purple Jesus Night, a long-standing Mill tradition. The Mill hosts Purple Jesus three times a year, during which the drink is made in front of Public Safety, and the ingredients are posted in the Mill for anyone to see. The drink has the same amount of alcohol as a 5.4 percent beer.

As it stands now, the Mill is the only social house that is allowed to serve hard alcohol during registered parties.

This policy came out of a 2006 pilot program that offered social houses the option to host longer parties (an increase from four to five hours) with more registered alcohol (the amount of beer that could be registered increased from 4 to 5 kegs), but they would only be allowed to serve wine and beer. The Mill opted out of this program, but the other four social houses joined the pilot program.

The talks focused on whether the 2006 pilot program should remain a “pilot” or be made official college policy. The council also discussed whether the Mill should continue to be an exception to the rule.

“We wanted to have a wider review of the presence of hard alcohol on campus,” explained Dean of Students Doug Adams. “Community Council seemed like a good place to have that wider discussion.”

The catalyst for the conversation, however, was largely due to this past fall’s Purple Jesus Night, during which a student was transported to the hospital. Mill President Nate Brown ’13 clarified that the student was marked as under-aged at the door and did not consume any alcohol, to his knowledge, at the Mill. He also commented on what he feels has been a largely successful job on the part of the Mill administration regarding to hard alcohol.

“We have found, in comparison to other parties, that we’ve been able to keep control just as well as any other group,” said Brown. “Even [compared to] those who are serving beer while we are serving hard alcohol.”

Brown also said that the Mill is the only social house that has had no alleged sexual assault reports from It Happens Here on its premises.

“We are providing [alcohol] in a safe environment and serving it like you would serve wine at a function,” he said. “It is a big tradition to us and for many students, and this party is what people associate the Mill with. Our only goal is to keep hosting a party that we have been hosting for 20 years.”

Many members of the council seemed to agree with Brown’s sentiment that the Mill has been doing a good job in keeping students safe while serving hard alcohol.

“I’m impressed with how the Mill has handled this,” said Kate Logan ’13. “I don’t see any catalyst to change the policy for the Mill.”

“Up until now I haven’t heard any reasons why the Mill should not be able to continue to serve alcohol,” added Luke Carroll Brown ’13.5.

Other members of the council, however, did express concerns. Dan Gaoitti, the associate director of Public Safety, explained that Public Safety has to spend much more time at the beginning of the night at the Mill because regulating a mixed drink is a larger task then regulating keg beer. Likewise, inconsistencies among social houses can create problems.

“When you are outlining the guidelines for students in party workshops on how to register parties and be within the lines of college policy, inconsistencies often create confusion,” explained Gaoitti.

Other members of the council thought about what other schools are doing.

“Most of our peer schools do not allow for the registering of hard alcohol,” said Adams.

Dean of Students Shirley Collado agreed with Adams.

“When we did research nationally, it was general consensus, based on health and safety, that open containers of hard alcohol are prohibited on many campuses,” she added.

Despite being able to serve hard alcohol, the Mill has been under the watchful eye of the administration.

The council agreed to vote on a motion that would make the 2006 pilot program into official college policy and let the Mill remain an exception.

A clause will be added detailing that if a social house wishes to switch from the pilot program to having hard alcohol, they could petition it as a group with the Inter-House Council (IHC).

The motion passed with 14 in support,, two in opposition and three abstentions. In the weeks to come, Community Council will likely continue to look at the role of hard alcohol on campus.