Students socialize at Table Manners on Tuesday night. Three times the number of students have been hospitalized from alcohol abuse in one semester than all of last year. .

Sponsors Critical of New Alcohol Policy
By Lori DesRochers
News Associate

One semester after the implementation of Pomona College’s new alcohol policy, nine Pomona students have been hospitalized due to alcohol abuse. For the entirety of last year, only three students were sent to the hospital.

“This may not be a record-breaking year, but it is certainly a year when we’ve had difficulties,” said Dean of Students Ann Quinley. Quinley denies that there is a connection between the effects of the new alcohol policy and the spike in incidents of alcohol abuse, but also finds it difficult to come up with a solution to the problem.

“I don’t really see how there could be a correlation,” she said. “I don’t think that there’s a reason for people to drink hard alcohol more.”

Last spring, the Committee for Investigating Alcohol Culture at Pomona College (CIACPC) helped to create a new alcohol policy for the College. Some of the modifications to the policy included a mention of the College’s discouragement of drinking hard alcohol, a restriction on the locations of weekday parties, and the addition of a Good Samaritan policy that requires students to seek assistance when a fellow student is dangerously intoxicated.

Alcohol has become a prominent point of discussion on campus. Dean of Campus Life Matt Taylor has sent numerous emails to students, informational signs about alcohol poisoning have been hung on South Campus shower faucets, and the College has hired a new Drug and Alcohol Counselor.

Quinley contends that this increase in discussion of alcohol-related issues, and an awareness of the Good Samaritan policy may have led to the increased number of reported alcohol incidents, rather than an increase in overall occurrences of alcohol abuse at the College.

Some students view this year’s alcohol problems as a direct result of the new alcohol policy. This point of view is especially prevalent among Sponsors, who work closely with the freshman class and argue that they can provide an important perspective on the changes between this year and last.

Elizabeth Groothuis ’06, a Sponsor in Wig Hall, believes that the new alcohol policy provides a dangerous incentive for students to continue to drink hard alcohol, but to do so in secret.

“I think that the community looks upon the new alcohol policy as somewhat of a joke. All that it’s really forcing students to do is drink more, faster, and behind closed doors,” she said. “While it’s true that most of the alcohol poisonings do occur as a result of hard alcohol consumption, making people—especially overeager first-years—drink faster behind closed doors hardly seems like a way to combat the problem.”

Kris Skovbroten ’06, a sponsor in Mudd-Blaisdell, agrees that the idea behind the policy is noble, however, she says, but its implementation has led to more problems than solutions.

“In the past, hard alcohol and beer and wine were more out in the open so people were pretty aware of what others were drinking,” she said. “Now it is easier for someone to have had way too much to drink and those around them not to know.† I think there is more front-loading as a result of the policy because people want to be social and most of the time keeping your door shut isn’t social at all.”

Sophomore Class President and Lyon Court Sponsor Chris Thompson believes another problem with the policy is that mixed drinks are discouraged as heavily as other forms of hard alcohol.

“I think that by not allowing mixed drinks, students who choose to drink hard alcohol are forced to do it behind closed doors in a very short period of time, which is much more dangerous and could explain the higher numbers of alcohol poisonings,” he said, “so although it may be discouraging the consumption of hard alcohol, it is actually encouraging unsafe drinking habits.”

The Head Sponsors for this year made many changes in housing the freshmen that also may have had an effect on the alcohol culture on campus. Substance-free halls were spread across South Campus instead of being isolated in Mudd-Blaisdell, and Sponsor Groups were placed together by factors that the Head Sponsors felt were more significant than substance use.

But Head Sponsor Christina Elmore ’04 agrees that the policy has had adverse effects on many first-years’ experiences with alcohol. Because the sponsors are instructed to avoid buying or consuming hard alcohol with their sponsees, it creates an environment in which students can feel uncomfortable with their own drinking habits. “In some ways, first-years feel like they can’t even talk to their sponsors about hard alcohol,” said Elmore.

ASPC President Ari Greenberg ’04 also sees problems with the way weekday parties have been restricted to certain locations. The initial policy was extremely limiting to weekday parties like Table Manners, The Boot, Pub, and Junior-Senior Social. At Greenberg’s request, the administration made changes to the policy and expanded the list of locations to include more indoor options than just the Doms Social Room in the Smith Campus Center Basement.

“The fact that they tried to funnel every single weeknight party into the Doms room is just not possible,” said Greenberg.

He agrees, however, that the new alcohol policy was realistic, safe, and responsible, but feels that the goal of bringing drinking into public venues was flawed unless there were more agreeable locations for the weekday parties. “No one gets alcohol poisoning during the week. On the weekends there’s much more pressure to get highly intoxicated,” he said.

Some students also feel that the problem of Pomona’s alcohol culture is more complex than simply finding more places for students to acquire beer. The results of the CIACPC’s study clearly show that alcohol is an major part of the social scene at Pomona College, and finding ways to make drinking a consistently safe activity is a daunting task.

“No matter what type of policy is implemented, there will still be students who choose to drink dangerously and who go overboard,” said Megan Cribbs ’06, a sponsor in Harwood Court. “Unfortunately, I think this just has to do with the mentality of being in college and being surrounded by new people and in a different and exciting environment.†“

Quinley suggests that community-based education, as well as providing more compelling activities that are not alcohol-related are two steps that the College has yet to undertake.

“If you asked me how I would change the alcohol policy, I wouldn’t have an answer,” said Quinley. “I don’t quite see what changes we could make that would reduce the problem any further. More than the rules, you have to have forward momentum in these other areas.”

Students agree that social events are often unnecessarily focused on alcohol, which can encourage an unsafe environment.

“I think Pomona social culture revolves around being drunk. If you’re not drunk, you’re not having fun, because the only ‘fun’ thing to do is to drink. I think drinking at Pomona is really mindless; it’s just the thing to do on the weekends,” said Shadiah Sigala ’06. “I think that Pomona should create a wider variety of venues in which students can have fun on the weekends. These venues don’t necessarily have to be sub-free, but the focus of the event should be on something other than the keg.”