Alcohol policies vary amoung Ivies

Unlike U., no others have BYOB Fraternity party-goers at the University are the only ones in the Ivy League who have to bring their own alcohol to parties, although other schools have considered instituting similar policies. In fact, the schools go about regulating parties in different ways. Some have open kegs, while others, like the University, forbid kegs on campus. And at Brown University the administration actually helps fraternities to apply for a state liquor license. At Dartmouth College and Columbia Universities, the amount of alcohol that can be served at fraternity parties is limited to the number of legal drinkers present at the event. Some type of monitoring is also done at those schools as well as at Cornell University. Dartmouth briefly experimented with a BYOB policy last school year, said Deborah Reinders, Dartmouth's assistant dean of residential life. But the policy was abandoned in February because "students found BYOB hard to control," Reinders said. "Men and women were smuggling in alcohol under their shirts," she said. "BYOB just wasn't working." As a result of the failed BYOB policy, students now get beer on tap from kegs at Dartmouth's fraternity parties. "The best way to control the source [of alcohol] is through a keg," Reinders said. Since all kegs are tagged and a list of over-21 drinkers who were invited to the party is required when the fraternity registers the party, the house should only have enough alcohol to serve students who can legally drink, she said. At Cornell, most all fraternity parties are catered. Bartenders serve beer and other alcoholic beverages. Randy Stevens, Cornell associate dean of student life, said on the rare occasions when a party is not catered, guests must bring their own alcohol. The bartenders, he said, watch to make sure that guests do not consume much more than a six-pack of beer or its equivalent. Minor infractions of the alcohol policy are dealt with by students, and the Cornell administration only steps in if a chapter has made a major violation, Stevens said. Here at the University, minor infractions are also reported to the Greek system. "The actual day-to-day monitoring of the Greek system is handled by the students," Stevens said. Daryl Conte, director of fraternity and sorority affairs at Columbia, said a BYOB policy would only work on there if underage drinkers did not try to smuggle alcohol in illegally. "We would encourage a BYOB policy if it happened in reality," Conte said. "In reality, you'd have 19-year-olds bringing in alcohol and that kind of defeats the purpose." At Columbia, the amount of beer allowed at parties is also calculated according to the number of expected over-21 guests. Liquor also can be served at parties and a certain number of ounces per person is used as a guideline of how much liquor is to be bought, Conte said. Princeton and Harvard universities have no fraternities and Yale University has a few off-campus fraternity houses that are not regulated by any specific alcohol policy. At Brown, a slightly more liberal policy regarding alcohol prevails for the handful of fraternities and sororites on the campus. Marylou McMillan, director of health education, said a house can apply for a Class F liquor license from Rhode Island twice a semester. Each license is good for one party. The Brown administration helps with the paperwork and once the license is obtained, the house can legally sell alcohol at an open party, McMillan said. All other parties are invitation only. But there is nothing to prevent either the house or invited guests from buying alcohol and distributing – though not selling – it to other guests, McMillan admitted.