I think the College needs to seriously reconsider it’s goodwill donation to the town. In these budgetary times, something has to give and if Hanover is being so uncooperative (for what appears to be no reason), maybe they should receive less money from their main (indirect) benefactor.

Way to make sure that students won’t want to use the Good Sam anymore Giacone. I’m glad that strong arm law is more important than the safety of students to the Hanover Police.

This reminds me of the ill conceived “Freshman Exclusion” of 30 years ago. The College decided to forbid first years from entering any fraternity during the course of the freshman year. The problem — the college did not offer sufficient alternate social alternatives for these students. If this new alcohol policy goes through, than budget cuts notwithstanding, the College should be prepared to spend significant amounts of money in order to provide a full range of social options for freshman, sophomores, juniors before they turn 21 and students who chose not to join the Greek system.

So… alumni visiting a house might be arrested as individuals if they’re hanging out with the wrong kids? That should be popular…

Another health concern: depression.

Since this policy will be turning the Greek system into an exclusive, invite-only social scene, the feelings of alienation for those outside the Greek system will increase exponentially. Rates of suicide and depression are much higher at colleges where it’s Greek-or-nothing in regards to a social life. One of the great things about Dartmouth is that it allows all members of the community to feel welcome. Do we really want students to have to deal with the in-crowd/out-crowd mentality?

What is particularly galling about this is their use of infiltration and deception. Were they deciding to hold random inspections of frat parties, that might be defensible as a legitimate attempt to protect people’s health and safety. But using “sting operations” is a solely punitive measure, which will do nothing but produce fear and resentment of the police.

Awesome policy! It’s too cold to walk to the frats anyway and beer is so weak sauce anyways. Only 4% ABV, and it fills you up too much. Maybe my WW II themed vodka party will have a higher turn-out this time. I’ll be sure to do my part in keeping the # of arrests low by making sure not to Good Sam anyone who passes out with boot clogging his trachea.

Hanover cops are the ultimate clowns… “sting ops”… are you kidding. this is just plain hilarious

You are absolutely right, Cyrus. For years Dartmouth Safety & Security has done random checks of social events on campus to protect health and safety and if something is not going right they step in. They have a very open and cooperative relationship with students. That is a relationship they could build on if they think more needs to be done. The town should learn from this.

The police decision appears to be going in the opposite direction necessary, and the department’s tactics are exactly opposite, as well, what one would expect in an academic environment. The open nature of what this parent perceives as the social environment at Dartmouth is a tremendous plus, particularly in light of its relatively isolated, small-town setting coupled with a competitive academic setting. Not only does the proposed action appear counter-productive, for the reasons cited in other comments. It also offers a particularly negative example of how to approach a longstanding issue — and the issue isn’t underage drinking, but rather, a lack of maturity, self-control, and simply, “common sense” in kids growing up in a free society. Consistently, relentlessly addressing that issue in an open environment, where granted, mistakes always will occur, is better than applying punitive measures hitting only those who get caught, and isolating those who need help and guidance.

Whatever happened to reasonable suspicion? Do the police now have the right to enter someone’s home whenever they wish to check for illegal activities? It seems in his attempt to strong-arm Dartmouth students, the police chief has forgotten about constitutional rights regarding search and seizure. Giaccone’s comment that if students don’t like the policy, they can simply ‘attend another Ivy League school" is inane and reveals his underlying animosity to Dartmouth college and its students. Having such a person in charge of students protection is frightening and Dartmouth alumni should join together in calling for his resignation.

The College should convert all the buildings to condos for alumni and move to Connecticut. That would take care of the layoff problem too.

When are the students, administration, Faculty and Staff of Dartmouth going to wake up and strike at the root cause of the situations we constantly find ourselves in with this hicktown government? It is time that Dartmouth buy up the rest of the town (we own most of it already), remove the undereducated officials and town council and run this place the way it was intended. It is no surprise that Hanover’s schools are among the top rated in the state. Why? Because Dartmouth has been running them for years! Whether directly as educators and school board members, or indirectly as parents and community members, we’ve made sure that the local morons did not dumb down our children and future. Now we need to do the same with the Town government. Remove everyone in any town position who is not a Dartmouth grad and replace them. Merge the operations that are duplicated (thus wasteful): Town Hall moves to Parkhurst; S&S takes over the police department; FO&M absorbs the highway department; Dart EMS runs their own ambulance on Good Sam calls; Bring back the student run volunteer fire department, like we used to have. We then make sure the state legislature is packed with Dartmouth people and repeal the laws that hold us to the same standard as everyone else. Dartmouth needs to be exempt from laws related to drinking, driving, parking, crossing the street (and many, many,many more) that the town and jack-booted police have been forcing down our throats for years. Restaurants and bars in town should not be responsible for liquor laws when serving Dartmouth students. We know how to drink and do not need your laws to make good decisions. The town budget is almost 20 million dollars. That’s a good start toward addressing the Dartmouth budget shortfall. It’s also the start on the local level of restoring power to those intended to have it, the “intellectually and economically privileged of America”. Then we move on to the state and national arenas. The little people had better find their place and stay there.

Jesus, Green Monster. Either you’re a closet case or that’s some ham-fisted sarcasm.

Green Monster, in your long, drawn-out attempt at irony, you failed to note that Hanover wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for Dartmouth. The two were founded within a decade of one another. Dartmouth has allowed Hanover to become one of the most expensive, exclusive communities in Hanover. Dartmouth has predated the existence of any living Hanover resident. Urban schools like Penn, Harvard, and Yale have their own police forces, and patrol their own campuses — which is why their alcohol violations are so underreported. The Hanover Police seems less concerned about safety and more concerned about pulling in all those state dollars for the application of draconian drinking laws that no free-thinking person finds reasonable. On almost every occasion — expansion, renovation, construction, and now social life — the Town of Hanover has been recalcitrant, entitled, and arrogant in relation to the College. I hope that Dartmouth takes a strong position against the town in this matter and supports its student body, which is composed, after all, of ADULT citizens with constitutional rights and civil liberties.

I encourage Dartmouth students to register to vote in Hanover and to take an active role in local politics. You outnumber voting residents. You can vote El Generalissimo out of office.

Dartmouth ‘08 – While I agree that this sting-operation tactic is further evidence of just how divorced from reality Giaccone and the rest of H.Po. is, unfortunately what they’re proposing to do isn’t unconstitutional. By throwing their houses open to the campus community, fraternities are consenting to have individuals enter their premises. Thus short of recording anything—which they say they aren’t going to do—or entering any privately secured areas, the undercover “operatives” wouldn’t be violating anyone’s constitutional rights. Whether the state of New Hampshire’s constitution/statutes provide greater protection from arbitrary government intrusion than does the 4th amendment, I am not sure—it’s unlikely though.

Why is nobody discussing the statement that eleven students who were victims of alcohol-related sexual assaults? That seems to me to be the much bigger story here. That and the other numbers, for arrests and medical treatment, seem to be far too high. If those numbers are being inflated in order to advance an HPD agenda, that’s an important story. If they are not being inflated, however, it’s a even more important story. (And as I have no reason to believe that the numbers are inflated, I’ll go with the assumption that they are not.)

I well remember a meeting that fraternity officers had with a NH state liquor enforcement officer during my tenure as social chairman of my house, in which it was made very clear that while conducting sting operations on college campuses was really the last thing they wanted to do, their hands would be forced if drinking within fraternities caused problems that are visible outside of the college community. Hospitalizations, arrests, and allegations of alcohol-related sexual assault are exactly the types of visible problems that were referenced in that meeting. So while I think that our country’s drinking-age laws are ridiculous, and while I am also a staunch supporter of the positive role of fraternities at Dartmouth, I really think that students, fraternities and the College as a whole really need to understand that this HPD policy is a reaction to the impact that fraternity drinking is having outside of the college community. I think the policy needs to be seen as a message that the town, as represented by the HPD chief, is demanding better self-policing to reduce those numbers.

Personally, I think this will be a great motivation to create alternative social spaces on campus. Dartmouth students are incredibly resourceful; we won’t stop having social lives without alcohol at these frats and any argument that says that the Greek parties ARE our social lives is simply not true. Plus, the letter that the Greek leadership council wrote to the student body is laughable. Their objections are that:

"1) The initiative will make students less likely to use the

Good Samaritan Policy, due to increased fear of arrest and criminal charges.

2) Such a policy will drive drinking "underground" into

less regulated and more dangerous environments. Dartmouth students will be forced to drink hard liquor off-campus and in their rooms, creating a less safe, less cohesive Dartmouth community. “ First, the Hanover Police never said that the Good Samaritan policy was being affected, and I can’t understand why people would be any more scared to use Good Sam than they are now. Everyone knows that when someone is Good Sam'ed, there is a possibility of Hanover Police following the ambulance and arresting them. Second, we will be "forced to drink hard liquor off-campus and in their rooms, creating a less safe, less cohesive Dartmouth community”? So our community rests on drinking hard liquor in basements? So drinking hard-liquor in basements (where there is substantial peer pressure) is more safe? And maybe I speak for myself, but no one is forcing me to drink hard liquor to begin with or as a consequence of this policy. Alcohol is supposedly a social lubricant but what this means at Dartmouth is that it allows many students to do stupid stuff that they would never do sober or during the day time. It is a shame when alcohol is the only way that some people at this stressful, high-achieving school allow themselves to have fun and unwind. Also, someone mentioned depression as a result of this policy. The frat basements and the idiocy that goes on in many of them (not all of them) makes me more depressed than anything else. And LOTS of students feel this way. It’s time the change the dominance of the Greek system that we’ve always talked about and this very well may be the beginning.

This tactic absolutely stinks. I am grateful that the 1950s Dartmouth environment provided me with the opportunity to learn the effects of alcohol in a benign environment. Thank you Tanzi Bros. I think the relatively permissive culture of that time helped people learn individual responsibility far more effectively than the current emphasis on apprehension and punishment. I cannot deny that abuses do and did occur. I recall a-case-a-day beer drinker who passed out on the Green walking to his 8 o'clock class and the guy who fell out of a third story frat window when the space was supposed to be occupied by visiting females. Has the change in enforcement really changed the results? I don’t think so.

The thing is that these unfortunate events occur regardless of police action and criminalizing underage drinking is not going to change these behaviors. This new policy, as has been mentioned, will drive the drinking underground and place pernicious penalties on the hapless victims of its pursuit.

I thought Dartmouth was involved in public health issues. Alcohol abuse in a community affects everyone, in the college and without. Queer as it may seem to the Greeks, they do not have the right to drain the resources of a community, police, hospital, ambulances, etc., no matter how mush money the Greeks have, they are NOT entitled to special treatment by law enforcement or the community. Dartmouth College has turned into a babysitter’s club; the Greeks are the big babies. time to groe up, the world is sick of hearing how you expect special dispensation. No more “bailouts!”