After assembling a 26-person team to study the issue of underage and high-risk drinking on campus, UNC-Chapel Hill rolled out a new alcohol policy this summer.
Previously, UNC-Chapel Hill’s alcohol policies centered more on enforcement and disciplinary action, Sauls tells Diverse.
UNC-Chapel Hill is not the first college or university to move away from an alcohol policy oriented around enforcement and disciplinary action to one that is centered on education and student health. Other institutions are moving a step further in their eff orts to combat drinking on campus. Dartmouth College announced a campuswide ban on hard alcohol in January 2015, in an effort to transform residential life.
After an incident involving date rape drugs, Brown University banned alcohol from being served at registered events in the school’s residence halls. That initiative was an effort to crack down on drinking associated with campus fraternities. Stanford University also recently banned hard liquor from undergraduate campus parties. The institution has been under the spotlight after a headline-making rape case involving a Stanford swimmer, for which he blamed his behavior on college party culture.
Drinking in college is broadly considered to be a rite of passage and is a ubiquitous component of many time-honored college traditions. Yet alcohol, and high-risk drinking behaviors, are at the root of a host of health and safety concerns that plague college campuses, not to mention the legal issues intrinsic to underage drinking.
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