Dartmouth College will roll out a number of new policies in an effort to address binge drinking, hazing and sexual assault on campus, Dartmouth President Phil Hanlon announced in a speech on Thursday.
The college’s trustees have already approved a reform plan that includes such action items as banning hard liquor that is at least 15 percent alcohol; increasing penalties for sexual assault and hazing; launching a smartphone safety app and adding six residential communities for new students that will create a new social space on campus.
“Each Residential Community will organize and host social and academic programs, and eventually each will have dedicated space for study and social interaction,” Hanlon said in his speech. “We are committing in excess of $1 million per year to support programming in the Residential Communities and other College-owned venues.”
Hanlon said in April 2014 that he would appoint an ad hoc committee to study and complete a plan to address social issues on the Hanover, New Hampshire, campus. The new plan, titled “Moving Dartmouth Forward,” follows months of committee meetings.
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Peter Hackett, a theater professor and Dartmouth alum, said although he’s pleased with the transparency of the reform effort, he still has questions about the enforcement of the liquor ban. For instance, Hanlon said students will be punished for having hard alcohol, Hackett said, “but I sit on the discipline committee and I don’t know what that means.”
Yet, ultimately, Hanlon said, “I do not believe that simply eliminating this one aspect of campus life would be a comprehensive, or even effective, solution to the more pervasive challenges we face. It would not address the charge I placed before our community of purging extreme behaviors wherever they occur on campus.”
A Timeline Of Aggressions At Dartmouth:
