College and alcohol are invariably connected; preparing for midterms and preparing for tailgates, finishing your essay and finishing your game of pong, going to class and going out for the night exist in tandem. At Dartmouth—who is often jokingly referred to as “The Party Ivy,” whose official-unofficial mascot is a beer keg and whose student population is majority affiliated—this is especially true. It can be difficult for students to keep this balance and, in some cases, can lead to high risk drinking behaviors.
A student who wishes to remain anonymous has witnessed the dangers of this first hand, through the experience of having to Good Sam a fellow student. It was Homecoming weekend, and the student had woken up at around one o’clock in the morning. There were three men yelling in the student’s hall, but the student had not been listening until they tried to enter the student’s room. Realizing that it was not the right one, they went into the room next door.
The student said, “They ended up in the room next to me. And I kind of heard what was going on throughout the night. There were at least three people involved; there might have been a fourth, but if there was they were quiet the whole time. And they started saying things like, ‘Oh, I had way more to drink than he did,’ ‘He’s fine,” you know, ‘Don’t be such a p*ssy about it,’ like that kind of thing. I started to get kind of concerned because literally the whole time this person that they’re talking about hasn’t said anything or made any sort of acknowledgement that they are, in fact, alive.”
The student could only hear the sound of the third person vomiting on the floor. So the student went to the bathroom and called Safety and Security; the man next door was found to be unresponsive by paramedics and was taken to the hospital.
“About two weeks after that I got a follow-up from the SNS officer involved, and apparently it had been a really serious situation. I learned from other people on our floor that he was in the hospital for like three days after that,” the student said.
At the beginning of this year, the Student Wellness Center released a report on alcohol use at the undergraduate level titled “Dartmouth Student Well-Being: High-Risk Drinking Prevention.” It was revealed that, in 2018, 41% of Dartmouth undergraduates reported having had five or more alcoholic drinks at one time in the two weeks prior, being classified as high-risk drinkers. 59% reported having not had five or more alcoholic drinks at one time in the two weeks prior, with 41% of these undergraduates classified as lower-risk drinkers and 18% as non-drinkers. The majority of students also practice protective behaviors when drinking: 75% eat before and/or during drinking most of the time or always, 65% keep track of how many drinks they are having most of the time or always, and 69% choose not to drinks sometimes of more often when partying or socializing. Despite the majority of students practicing safe drinking behaviors, there is still a significant proportion that do not.
Noble Rai ‘23 said, “I didn’t think it would be so prevalent among the main student body. It very much feels like if you want to go out and be involved in social life, you need to drink. Alternatives to drinking need to be better advertised and better advocated.”
Collis After Dark is perhaps the most well known of these alternatives. Their activities, held on Friday and Saturday nights, this term have included bubble ball, inflata-battles and an outdoor movie showing. Additionally, housing communities often host events for their residents.
In terms of resources on the subjects of alcohol use, there are numerous on campus—to be used by those who may have a drinking problem, those who wish to better educated, and anyone in between. The Good Samaritan Policy is just one offered at Dartmouth, with the Student Wellness Center providing many others: for example, the Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students (BASICS) program, AlcoholEDU for first years, eCHECKUP TO GO, counseling and links to national resources.
When asked how drinking culture has evolved in her eight years with The College, Caitlin Barthelmes, the Director of the Student Wellness Center, said, “I’ve seen a lot of evolution happening around the subjects of health and well-being, including alcohol use as well. I think one of the most notable is just a growing bystander culture in general at Dartmouth from when I began. A lot more endorsement of the idea of stepping and checking in on friends, on peers. I think that’s really exciting because we’re building a culture of care here.”
She went on to say about high risk drinking behaviors, “These things don’t happen in a vacuum. Thinking about student wellness in general and people’s wellbeing, we should do anything that we can do, either as individuals, peers or a community, to encourage people to take care of themselves—in terms of their mental health, their emotional health and all the different aspects.”
High risk drinking is not simply about alcohol abuse—it is a multifaceted issue, and as such, it requires a multifaceted solution.
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