Brandeis University became the latest college to cancel events in response to pre-party binge drinking - or pre-gaming - when it indefinitely canceled its semi-annual Modfest party.
Before Modfest's cancellation, which the university announced March 27, alcohol was available at the event to students of legal age. A higher number of ambulance calls and widespread reports of pre-gaming during this winter's Modfest prompted administrators to place a moratorium on all future plans for the event.
"Modfest seems to have become an event which typically sends the message that the need is to get pretty floored," Brandeis Dean of Student Life Rick Sawyer told the Justice, Brandeis' student newspaper, in a March 28 article. "We don't have a lot of trouble on the weekend with regular activity. But it's as if when there's a Modfest, there's a signal."
But Damien Lehfeldt, a freshman at the Waltham, Mass., university, told The Herald, "Pre-gaming goes on before every single Brandeis-sponsored event. Most freshmen who go to parties will pre-game before."
Students including Lehfeldt and Edgar Ndjatou, a Brandeis student government official who opposes canceling Modfest, have said the college misunderstands the issue and that canceling one event will not address the larger problem of pre-gaming.
"(The administration) is beating around the bush by canceling it because there are lots of other events with lots of pre-gaming. Canceling Modfest doesn't stop excessive drinking, which, as far as I can tell, is primarily isolated to freshmen, anyway," Lehfeldt said.
"It's unfortunate that a lot of people had to go to the hospital (the night of this winter's Modfest), but I don't think it was a failure. Why take away something that the entire community is looking forward to?" Ndjatou said in an interview with the Justice.
A broader trendThe cancellation of a college party centered around drinking is not unique to Brandeis. Acting on concerns about underage drinking, police in Waterville, Maine, announced late last year that they would send undercover officers into parties at local Colby College. But the police later scrapped the plan and instead increased patrols on Colby's campus.
Wellesley College banned all parties of more than 1,000 people after 16 students were injured in an event last spring.
At the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, administrators have begun an extensive crackdown on alcohol that includes a ban on drinking games, a ban on large gatherings, police patrols of dorms and limits on how many containers of alcohol a student over 21 may have in his or her possession.
In May 2003, a UMass-Amherst pre-graduation party turned into a riot after 1,500 people upturned cars and started fires. Fifteen students were injured and 45 were arrested during the event.
More recently, officials in Hanover, N.H., have been trying to prevent Dartmouth College's annual Tubestock party, in which inebriated students float down the Connecticut River on tubes and other flotation devices furnished by the school's Greek organizations.
At Brown, administrators did not cancel Starf*ck, Queer Alliance's spring party, but QA called off the event, citing both alcohol concerns and increased monitoring from the University as factors in its decision. The University found itself in the national spotlight last semester after QA's Sex Power God party, during which as many as 30 students were treated for alcohol poisoning.
Brown respondsAt Brown, Spring Weekend - an event not unlike Modfest - will be held on April 20 through April 22. According to Margaret Klawunn, associate vice president of campus life and dean for student life, multiple policies are in place to keep students safe during the event, which has a reputation for high levels of alcohol consumption.
Residential Peer Leaders and Community Directors will be assigned scheduled rounds, during which they must actively go through dorms looking for unsafe situations. In addition to that policy, which has been in place in past years, the University has made sure that an ambulance will be available exclusively for its use.
All advertisements for Spring Weekend are supposed to be tagged with a disclaimer that intoxicated students will not be admitted to any events, Klawunn said. However, posters for the two concerts that will take place did not carry such disclaimers.
Klawunn, who chaired the Ad Hoc Committee to Review Social Events Policy and Procedures - which was established after Sex Power God and released its recommendations in March - said research on alcohol consumption indicates that implementing a combination of policies is the most effective response to pre-gaming.
"We know from the weekend in mid-November - the weekend of Sex Power God - that certainly pre-gaming is a problem at Brown," she said.
Klawunn said administrators are addressing pre-gaming by taking advantage of the research and by working closely with students, faculty and staff.
"We haven't just canceled this or that event, but instead, we're taking a multi-pronged approach to preventing pre-gaming," she said.
She added that self-reported rates of consumption collected by the University's Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies indicate the amount of pre-gaming at Brown is similar to the national average.
The social events committee made a bevy of recommendations, including finding more space for events, expanding the role of RPLs and establishing subsidies for events where alcohol is not served.
The committee also recommended establishing and enforcing a policy of not allowing intoxicated students into an event. Klawunn acknowledged that intoxicated students do still get into parties, though, and that extra staffing could help prevent this from happening.
"It can be difficult for a student party manager to turn away a peer or a friend, so for larger events there should be someone else managing the door," she said.
The Office of Student Life is working with the Undergraduate Council of Students, the Undergraduate Finance Board and other student groups to address how to fund the increased costs of holding a large event if student groups are required to hire a professional party manager, which was one idea that came out of the ad hoc committee's discussions, Klawunn said.
