The idea was supported by students and staff who attended the Dec. 5 workshop, one in a series of events designed to spark conversation about ways to counter high-risk drinking on campus. Resembling the academic honor code that undergraduates sign on every paper and exam, a social honor code would hold students to a higher standard as responsible drinkers.
“Students need to step up, rather than leaving it to the administration,” said McCosh Health Services psychologist Roberto Schiraldi in one of the workshop’s breakout sessions.
Added Mike Olin, director of student life for Wilson College: “I would like to see a translation of the successes of the honor code system to alcohol policy.”
The workshop, the fourth to be held since the ACC was created in December 2007, focused on University policies and enforcement.
“Often, people don’t know exactly what the policies are,” Wilson College Master Marguerite Browning said. “Everybody has misconceptions.”
Participants moved among groups centered on issues ranging from Public Safety patrols to pre-gaming — drinking in dorm rooms before visiting the eating clubs or attending other social events. Ultimately, students and staff agreed that the University could benefit from more Princeton-specific alcohol education and discussed forms that a social honor code might take.
Other ideas included learning from what works and what doesn’t in eating clubs’ and sports teams’ alcohol policies, as well as creating a student-run EMT response team that would mirror some eating clubs’ “safety patrols” — members who are designated on Thursday or Saturday nights to monitor intoxicated students.
Some students called for a change in enforcement policies, saying that fear of disciplinary action can discourage students from bringing a drunken friend to McCosh Health Center. “Public Safety would have to take a step back for this social culture to take a step forward,” said Juan Candela ’10.
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2 Responses
John W. Minton Jr. ’50
8 Years AgoEnforce drinking rules
If Princeton University is unwilling to enforce its current rules about alcohol consumption, why should the students be required to do so (Notebook, Jan. 28)? This nifty reversal of in loco parentis, leaving students to do the parenting, is the latest example of an unwavering march to total confusion regarding responsibility.
The University is responsible for an alcoholism policy and its enforcement. The students are responsible for adherence to these policies and any consequences for subsequent violations. If the trustees are unwilling to require enforcement of University policy, whatever that policy regarding alcohol consumption may be, then they should resign.
There should not, however, be any confusion about the New Jersey statutes regarding the age limitation on alcohol purchase and consumption. All those empty alcohol containers found along the P-rade route during Reunions fully illustrate the University’s and others’ lack of concern for the “open-container” policy instituted more than 60 years ago when I was an undergraduate.
I have no dog in this fight, nor am I interested in who drinks or who doesn’t. That is a matter between the University and its student body. We do not need a social honor code; we do need an undergraduate body whose members believe in doing what is required of them as part of the University community, and an administration that no longer sets forth rules of conduct that are not enforced. Even small children are capable of spotting intellectual dishonesty when they encounter it.
Anonymous
8 Years AgoDrinking at Princeton
I am an alcoholic. I took my first drink at Old Nassau, where my drinking progressed rapidly and affected me abnormally. By the time I graduated, I had punched out the wall of an eating club and was briefly hospitalized at McCosh. Somehow I received my degree, but my drinking problems did not end with Princeton.
Decades later I learned I had a physical addiction and allergy to alcohol. I eventually recovered, but perhaps if I had known about alcoholism earlier, I might have saved myself and many others a great deal of pain.
Could Princeton have done anything to help? In my case, the only thing it could have done was lead me to real help for my condition.
We must recognize the difference between antics and alcoholism. If a non-alcoholic student binges a few times, then scoldings, hangovers, and perhaps a code of honor may be enough to put him on the straight and narrow. But if he’s a real alcoholic like me, suffering from an alcohol craving beyond his mental control, little would be accomplished by an honor-code policy (Notebook, Jan. 28). He needs real help.
The great Princeton alumnus, Dr. William Silkworth 1896, much revered by the alcoholic community, wrote a section of the book, Alcoholics Anonymous. He acknowledged that there was no medical cure and sup-ported efforts of alcoholics who banded together in support groups. Silkworth provided medical credibility to Twelve-Step programs that now span the world.
To date there exists neither a medical nor a psychological cure for alcoholism. The best solution we have is to send problem drinkers to AA or some similar program. It’s not 100 percent effective, but it’s the best we can do — give the alcoholic a genuine chance to recognize his condition and realize a solution.
Editor’s note: As requested, the name of the writer, a member of the Class of 1985, has been withheld to observe the Alcoholics Anonymous tradition of anonymity.