The dominant social status game at every college in the US is partying. Partying lets us judge how fun other people are to be around, how much other people seem to like them and what sort of sexual partners they attract. On its face it makes little sense that our nation’s best and brightest youth are so willing to drink; alcohol use kills brain cells, hurts academic and athletic performance, makes us more aggressive/more prone to engage in risky behavior, and has severe long-term health effects.

But drinking gives us higher status, because it’s a credible signal of commitment; by drinking, we show our peers that we’re willing to take risks and hurt ourselves for the benefit of the group. Drinking also gives us high status because it’s wasteful – it kills brain cells, makes the drinker feel sick, and makes schoolwork impossible, so it’s notable if you can party hard and still get good grades. When you see studies showing that drinkers earn more money than nondrinkers, it’s not because alcohol opens pathways in the brain – it’s because people who drink have higher status than nondrinkers, and thus are more likely to get paid more, compete in the workplace, and get bonuses.

CMC is the hardest partying school of any of the 5C’s, due mainly to our cultural legacy as a men’s only college, and the high proportion of athletes here. Because of our reputation and culture, not only do we attract students who are more likely to engage in hard partying, but we also train each incoming class to value partying as well. We assign social status to other CMC students based on how fun they are to be around and the status of their sexual partners, both of which are facilitated by partying and alcohol.

As long as drinking gives students higher status, then any attempts by the school to reduce the amount of drinking, either through more restrictive policy or through admitting more introverted students, will fail. Partying will get pushed inside dorm rooms, to the other colleges, Claremont bars or College Park. But people will continue partying; they have to, to preserve their status. High status people could announce that they’re playing a different game, but they earned their high status by being good at partying, so they have little incentive to change the game, just like you wouldn’t want CMC to suddenly begin admitting students with low SAT scores.

To be alcohol-free is to risk being judged harshly by one’s peers and not invited along the next time everyone goes out. While Kenley Turville works her tail off for SLC, dry events will never be a big draw, because everyone worries that they’ll be assigned low status for choosing not to drink. We assert that we can have good time without drinking, or we know someone who’s fun and doesn’t drink, but we’re still there on a Saturday night taking pulls from a handle of Captain Morgan and bragging about how drunk we were the next morning at Collins. While the administration thinks the problem is simply about alcohol, for students, the stakes are far higher than a few shots.

(with thanks to Andy McKenzie and Charlie Sprague for discussion, and Katie Walker for the photo)

Should CMC change its alcohol policy?  Come listen to the discussion on Tuesday, November 17 at Debate Night at the Ath.  Sign up here.

The email goes on to imply that  the RA’s have stalled any drastic action by DOS, but it also states that “things have to change” if CMCers are going to be able to enjoy the alcohol-related privileges they currently have.   The rest of the email is a reiteration of basic tenets of CMC alcohol policy:

1.     Put it in a red cup. If it’s not in a red cup, it will be confiscated.

2.     No glass. If you break glass at a party there is a $200 fine.

3.     If you’re in trouble, don’t be afraid to call the RA on duty.

4.     Drink within your limits.

5.     If it’s a CMC only party, all other students (and townies) will be asked to leave.

CMC Public Alcohol Policy: Alcoholic beverages may be served and consumed only at private events limited to members of the College community and their invited guests. Alcoholic beverages may not be served or consumed at events open to the public, such as intercollegiate athletic contests, or outside the confines of a registered and fenced party area. (Guide to Student Life page 32)

The email singles out “one particular event”, which for “privacy” reasons it does not disclose,  but which sources say was the transportation of a student suffering from acute alcohol poisoning.

But what does all this really mean?  At the beginning of each Fall semester people are excited to return to school and freshman are still adjusting.  There are a few problematic alcohol-related incidents.  These incidents in turn prompt a response from DOS, who, with our safety and the image of the institution in mind, make a serious attempt to “remind” students to follow the common sense rules that most of us have no trouble following. The past few years, actual policy changes have been a part of this cycle.  These changes have included a prohibition of outside drinking games (last year), and stricter accountability standards for TNC (two years past).  Despite these measures, CMC’s drinking culture has remained largely the same.

Tuesday’s meeting between DOS and the RAs involved a more serious conversation than usual about the evolution of the school’s drinking culture, and is apparently only the first in a series of meetings that may very well result in concrete measures to moderate a party atmosphere that DOS feels has gone from fun to dangerous.

Resident Assistant Caroline Taylor (Apartments, ’10), was kind enough to talk to the Forum about what is going on.  According to Taylor, the crux of the problem is that too much of the focus is now not on “partying” but solely on drinking.

“The culture needs to be where it was five years ago,” she says.  “We are on your [the students’] side.  We want people to be able to drink.  Drink in your rooms, take shots, but then go out to the party and socialize!  It’s just not about drinking everywhere.”

Apparently a big part of the issue being discussed is the prevalence of actual alcohol bottles, particularly handles of hard alcohol, being brought to parties like TNC.  When this happens, the focus shifts from a friendly conversation with a trusty red cup in hand to putting down as much booze as possible.  This is why the “no broken glass” and “red cup” policies are receiving extra attention.

The take away is this:  yes, there have been warnings like this in the past that have had no serious consequences.  This time around it looks like the real deal.

#16 Best Campus Food (+1)
#7 Best Career Services (-5)
#11 Dorms Like Palaces (no change)
#3 Happiest Students (+1)
#15 Lots of Race/Class Interaction (+3)
#11 Most Popular Study Abroad Program (not ranked last year)
#10 Most Politically Active Students (+1)
#13 Professors Get High Marks (not ranked last year)
#10 Most Accessible Professors (+1)
#3 School Runs Like Butter (+2)
#13 Great Financial Aid (-3)
#1 Easiest Campus to Get Around (not ranked last year)
#3 Best Quality of Life (+2)

And lastly, the ranking that CMC Public Affairs left off in their annual self-congratulatory mass e-mail…
Lots of Beer #5 (+8)

You can bet your Icehouse keg that President Gann is getting angry phone calls from alumni and parents about that one.  It’s not surprising that Public Affairs left it out in the e-mail, but it is strange that the e-mail is from “Public Affairs Office,” as if someone (Richard Rodner?) doesn’t want to stand behind it.

Anyway, expect to see some backlash against ASCMC in the form of increased security at parties, RA narc-ing, and difficulty when registering kegs.  In addition, Dean of Students will get some heat, and Trustee committee meetings will dwell on the issue for far too long.  Last year I wrote a post on the topic of beer at CMC, but it goes without saying that this ranking is based on widely-held misconceptions about CMC parties.  (On a side note, Preston Waserman ‘11 thinks we can do better: “I really think with the right attitude we can get to top three,” Waserman said in his most recent Twitter.)

As for the rankings as a whole, they seem to indicate that not only did we drink more, but we admitted three or four more minorities and international students, got rejected from lots of jobs, fired a housing coordinator, and had slightly better weather.  Not a bad year.

Overall, I would say that Princeton Review does a good job of ranking the Claremont Colleges within the Claremont Colleges.  Yes, CMCers might drink more than Pitzer and the other 5Cs, but we’re pretty comparable to Pomona and pale in comparison to most state schools.  And yes, Pitzer has lot more “Birkenstock-Wearing, Tree-Hugging, Clove-Smoking Vegetarians” who happen to smoke pot than the other 5Cs.  But I wouldn’t say Harvey Mudd is truly among the least beautiful campuses in the country or that CMC’s beer consumption per capita is anywhere close to that of some Ivy League schools.

Here’s how the other 5Cs fared:

Scripps:
#4 Dorms Like Palaces
#4 Most Beautiful Campus
#19 Easiest Campus to Get Around

Pomona:
#14 Dorms Like Palaces
#7 School Runs Like Butter
#5 Great Financial Aid
#13 Least Religious Students
#1 Best Classroom Experience
#19 Best Quality of Life

Pitzer:
#10 Most Popular Study Abroad Program
#12 Birkenstock-Wearing, Tree-Hugging, Clove-Smoking Vegetarians
#19 Gay Community Accepted
#7 Lots of Race/Class Interaction
#14 Reefer Madness
#11 Least Religious Students
#11 Most Liberal Students

Harvey Mudd:
#7 Least Beautiful Campus
#17 Intercollegiate Sports Unpopular or Nonexistent
#15 Professors Get High Marks
#12 Most Accessible Professors
#18 Students Study the Most

Dear Hillary,

My best friend gets absolutely black out drunk every weekend. It’s turning into a problem because being black out is her goal whenever we drink even though the rest of us aren’t doing the same. I am really concerned that she might get hurt while drunk even though I know that CMC is safe. What can I say without hurting her or losing her as a friend?

Wow, this is going to be one intense conversation. I think the best way to approach it is to be honest and very direct about it. I would advise you not to bring your other friends into it because she might feel like she is being ganged up on. If she discusses it with them and they are able to express similar concerns at a later point that might help your case. Sit her down sometime when you both have time to talk it out and try to express in a nice way that you are concerned that something might happen to her. You might want be able to ask her why she feels the need to drink that much, but that might come off a little strong and I’d be wary of asking that too directly. You don’t want her to feel like she is being attacked, it’s better to frame it as a legitimate concern for her health and safety.

If you are not ready to talk to her about it yet there are some decent resources for counseling on campus. These are also available to her if she agrees it is a problem she might want to seek help outside of your social support and see a professional. Monsour Counseling & Psychological Services Center is a good place to start and if other resources are needed they would surely provide more information for you both. RAs are always on hand if you feel like you need someone older but slightly less official to talk this over with. I would advise against talking too much about this with other friends just because you might not want to seem like you have talked to everyone but her about it. It’s also not good to talk behind your friend’s back anyways, so this direct approach might make it a simpler problem. You don’t want to have trust issues on top of drinking issues. Good luck!

The list of signatories does not include president Pamela Gann of Claremont McKenna College.

Given CMC’s fairly liberal attitude towards underage drinking, at first glance it seems surprising that our administration would not gladly sign onto a statement that promotes lowering the drinking age. However, when examining the Amethyst Initiative statement more closely and comparing it to the drinking culture at CMC, it is apparent that president Gann has some good reasons not to sign it.

Despite the drinking age being 21, says the statement, “a culture of dangerous, clandestine ‘binge-drinking’ – often conducted off-campus—has developed.” While there may be a fair amount of binge drinking at CMC, clandestine is definitely not the word to describe it. In addition, there is little social life off-campus for underage students and more students that are 21+ go off campus to drink than those that are underage.

A social life that centers around campus, says President Gann, is exactly what the CMC administration aims to achieve” “We don’t stick our heads in the sand and say students aren’t going to drink,” she says. Instead, the administration tries to respect students’ privacy and focuses on the safety and security of the students. These actions by our administration are different than most other colleges and universities and perhaps show that there’s an alternative to lowering the drinking age that can still promote student health and prevent drunk driving and “clandestine” binge drinking. Gann points out that the size of our school and the fact that almost 100 percent of students live on campus are helpful to achieving these goals, and that she is not ready to promote this a solution for other schools.

In addition, the statement says: “alcohol education that mandates abstinence as the only legal option has not resulted in significant constructive behavioral change among our students.” President Gann believes that education about alcohol is extremely important and that college administrators have a responsibility to make sure that their students are prepared to deal with widespread drinking, both on campus and in the “real world” after graduation.

“We run 24/7 a village and community for young people and it is our responsibility to make sure they are socialized to the appropriate uses and dangers of alcohol,” she says. This goes beyond focusing on the law to providing a practical education about alcoholism, alcohol and mental illness, alcohol poisoning, and other dangers of alcohol. It also means exposing students to an environment where they can make healthy decisions about alcohol. This type of education is important regardless of the drinking age, Gann believes.

Opponents of the Amethyst Initiative, most notably Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), have argued that raising the drinking age has lowered drunk driving deaths by over 10 percent, even when controlling for other factors like new safety features. The unique approach to alcohol at CMC serves as an example of how we can keep our roads safe while cutting down on uncontrolled and unhealthy drinking on campuses.

There are certainly many compelling reasons for lowering the drinking age, and I’m sure most of you underage would love to be able to drink legally (I just turned 21 suckers!), but CMC proves that there are many actions that college and university administrators can take without having to drastically change public policy.

One of the most positive results of the Amethyst Initiative is that it has sparked debate, not only on college campuses, but also throughout the country. The drinking age not only affects us at CMC, but it affects our peers serving in Iraq who are not trusted to drink even though they are prepared to give their lives. “Colleges are just a very small subset of the American population,” says Gann. She looks forward to having candid discussion about this issue, both on campus and in the greater American community.

Yohei, last week CMC held no sponsored parties. We all understand that you need a break from throwing events and that there has been an increase in alcohol-related incidents at CMC. Is there anything else you can tell us in terms of what to expect in the future and what really happened?

Recently, the Dean of Students’ office told us there were a few issues we needed to deal with. We started discussing those issues and were unable to reach a solution in time, which is why last week’s parties were canceled. Fortunately, we had a meeting last Friday discussing each issue and changes that needed to happen. We came up with a few changes. We’re going to start implementing those and bringing back parties this weekend.

What are the changes?

Well, it’s a lot and not all of it is clear at this point. For one thing, we have to register our parties with the school differently. [Parties have to be registered at least two weeks in advance with details such as the number of attendees. The regulations for a registered party are correlated with the estimated attendance of the event.] We’ve always registered TNCs as a 100-person event because we used to get about 100-150 people at each one. The average TNC attracts about 300 people now, sometimes more. We’re going to start making changes reflecting that.

We will have more security to keep non-affiliates out. We’ve always had fenced off parties once in a while and they’ve been great—it’s just that they’re all going to be like that which will be different.

Additionally, there are a lot of parties, like the 24 Hour Party, that people expect to happen that are looking very iffy right now. The DOS is against having a 24 Hour Party at this point. We will continue to talk to them. We’re doing our best to keep the same fun continuing.

To what do you attribute the increase in attendance at CMC’s parties?

I think there is a misperception that people are more out of control than in the past—that is just not true. There have been more reported alcohol-related incidents this year than in the past, but we’ve also had many more attendees at each event. So proportionally, alcohol-related incidents are probably not more prevalent than in the past.

As for parties in general, there’s been a lot less intercampus partying over the last couple years. We try to pick up the slack at CMC, which causes problems. My freshman year I went to a lot of Pomona and Mudd 5C parties. I think people still go to Mudd but not Pomona.

Why is that?

I think our parties are just a lot better (laughs). Also, maybe people are used to our parties and don’t want to go other places. I think Mudd has some crazy parties and they put a lot more effort into them than even we do, but our parties have just as many people now.

Is there anything CMCers need to do to help the current party situation?

We want CMC students to keep doing the same thing, but watch out for non-CMCers more. For example, if a Scripps student comes here and has an alcohol-related problem, the parents call the Scripps administration who calls the CMC administration, and that’s hard to deal with. (If you have a friend visiting, whether it be from the other 4Cs or from further away, I want CMCers to realize that they have to be responsible for their friends actions.

Have you thought about charging other schools for parties like our TNC? Something like requiring non-CMCers to pay $3 at each party?

Haha, that’d be awesome. We can’t do that though, it has to do with our rules.

Every CMCer knows your name—the Party Inform is the one weekly digest e-mail students anticipate all week and hold dearly when they receive it. Some people even print it out and hang it on their wall. Who writes the Party Inform? How early in the week do you know what will be in it? What is the process involved each week?

(Laughs) People actually put it on their walls? Well, TNCs are thrown by dorm presidents. Sam Stecker, the Dorm Affairs Committee Chair, is in charge of rotating which dorm throws that week’s TNC. Sometimes multiple dorms help out. Fridays are often uneventful, but CMC usually has non-alcoholic events like movie night. I often feel like Saturdays are my responsibility, so unless another school is throwing a party I throw one at CMC or find someone to throw one with me.

I meet with the Social Affairs Committee Chair from the other colleges every Sunday and discuss the upcoming weekend. In general, we try to plan as far ahead as possible. If there is an open Saturday, CMC always ends up picking it up and hosting a party. The other schools don’t make sure they have a party every Saturday. That’s another reason we have had a hard time—we always make sure there’s something going on.

As for the other events, anybody who wants an event to be in the Party Inform sends me an email by midnight on Wednesday.

How much planning goes into each event?

The bigger the event, the earlier you’d like to plan ahead. We have to register smaller parties two days in advance and larger parties two weeks in advance. The hardest part is the brainstorming. We—a group of people consisting of dorm presidents and other involved parties—sit around and talk about what we want to do. In the days leading up to the party, we spend a few hours shopping every day to go buy the decorations, beverages, and whatever else we need (cups, etc.). The day of a party, the people involved in throwing the party usually end up spending the entire day on that event.

How much does all this cost?

The cheaper parties float around $300, most of it for decorations, beverages and cups. Bigger parties on Saturdays like the Toga Party can go up to $1,000 or more. A lot of that is security and fencing. Security is especially expensive, as you can imagine. The new rules we are discussing with the DOS will make TNCs cost twice as much.

Where does the money come from?

All of it comes from the ASCMC from SAC, DAC, Senate, dorm funds, etc. It’s all money allocated from the ASCMC from student membership fees and fundraisers like yearbook sales. Everything is on the books and done through reimbursement as the ASCMC is a 501(c)(3) organization. We also go to different CMC and 5C organizations to get money depending on what the event is. For major 5C parties we get funding from all 5Cs.

Last weekend’s White Party, for example, was primarily funded by CMC, but we asked for the maximum from the other schools. Of course, not all 5C schools have as much money as CMC does.

What role does the Dean of Students play in all this?

The Dean of Students’ office deals with the issues when things go wrong, and then they talk to us. This year we’ve had a lot of communication between the DOS and ASCMC. They keep us updated on issues we have and talk to us and discuss possible solutions with us. It sucks that the rules are getting tougher, but they haven’t dropped a single rule on us without talking about it, which is great. Overall, there’s a lot of communication.

What drew you to the position of Social Affairs Committee Chair?

I wanted to be SACC within the first month of my arrival at CMC. Basically, I realized that we had a large budget we could throw parties with and all we had to do was throw parties with it. I was dorm president last year and saw how things worked via that job. I threw a lot of parties without an official title in my suite, and I guess it just went from there.

Who will be the next SACC?

I haven’t heard of anyone who has wanted to step up. Hopefully someone will. I don’t want to do it next year because there are a lot of other positions I’d be more interested in. If I were going to run for an ASCMC position I’d want to run for class president. The senior class president gets to throw the 100 and 200 days left parties, as well as frequent Las Vegas trips.

Can you talk about the White Party controversy from last week and what your role in it was?

Fortunately I wasn’t the one who had to deal with it. Isayas Theodros, the Sophomore Class President, hosted the party and had to deal with it the most. Still, the ASCMC sat down as soon as we heard about it and discussed what we should do. I think we did exactly what we should have done—nothing.