As The Atlantic reports, Stanford’s Office of Alcohol Policy and Education is framing this is as a “harm reduction strategy”, even though it sounds like a virtually unenforceable one.
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“Our intention is not a total prohibition of a substance, but rather a targeted approach that limits high-risk behavior and has the backing of empirical studies on restricting the availability of and access to alcohol”, according to the policy update.
Beer and wine are still allowed, a policy that the Distilled Spirits Council says “sends a risky message to college students” that beer and wine are “softer” than hard liquor.
Wine and beer may contain less alcohol by volume than hard liquors, but many cheap, popular, readily available wines and beers have ABVs between 8% and 13.6%, such as Franzia boxed wine and Bud Light Lime-A-Rita.
In March, Stanford’s president and provost wrote a note to the Stanford community that confronted the culture on campus surrounding alcohol and noted its contribution to sexual assaults.
“80 percent indicated that they do not think the hard alcohol ban has been successful in lowering high-risk drinking on campus”. This effectively limits students to buying bottles of liquor that are a pint or smaller.
Stanford is following in the footsteps of schools like Bates, Bowdoin, Colby and Notre Dame, which have had alcohol bans for at least six years. Fraternities and sororities at the University of Virginia must have a hired bartender at campus parties in order to have any hard liquor, and Dartmouth has completely banned hard liquor since 2015.
In June, Brock Turner, a 20-year-old swimmer on scholarship at Stanford, was convicted of assault with intent to commit rape of an intoxicated woman, sexually penetrating an intoxicated person with a foreign object and sexually penetrating an unconscious person with a foreign object.
During the case, Turner blamed his behavior on drinking. “I made a mistake, I drank too much, and my decisions hurt someone”.
In a letter that went viral, the woman Turner assaulted repeatedly pointed out that drinking was not Turner’s crime: It was assault. “Why am I still explaining this”.
The role of alcohol in the sexual assault drew scrutiny, particularly because Turner’s defense cited his impairment because of heavy drinking the night of the assault. “These include alcohol poisoning, sexual assault and relationship violence, organizational conduct problems, and academic problems”.
Santa Clara County Judge Aaron Persky formally removed himself on Monday from deciding whether to reduce a San Jose plumber’s child porn possession case from a felony to a misdemeanor after The Associated Press reported on the case earlier this month.
Describing himself as an “inexperienced drinker and party-goer”, Turner, in a letter he penned to Santa Clara Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky, said he had never experienced partying that involved alcohol until he attended Stanford, where he began drinking to relieve the stress of school and competitive swimming.
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