A Toast to Stanford

Sinking into himself, the overzealous Stanford freshmen fought to raise his head in response to his Resident Advisor (RA). “I’m here to help you,” the diction sounded angelic, “let’s get you home buddy.” Sidestepping through hundreds of raving college students, grimacing from the thumping base system at the fraternity, this RA had found his student. It didn’t matter where or how the eighteen year old became intoxicated. It didn’t matter what punishment the RA would award for the staggering display. Here, where the rolling foothills rise up towards mountains higher, a Resident Advisor journeyed simply to pick up his drunken freshman and get him home safe.

That’s how we learn in America…right? We set a national minimum drinking age limit, expecting experimentation to garner safe drinkers. We say 21, knowing that 81% of students on college campuses drink. Education? O’ that comes with trial and error! In this country, 21 does not mean you’re mature enough to drink, it simply means that you’ve struck an arbitrary age by which you can drink legally.

Explicitly, the national minimum drinking age in the United States has been 21 for the last twenty-five years, but over this time society has tacitly consented to underage drinking. Parents have sent students off to college knowing that their child will soon experience the acclaimed social lubricant – if they haven’t already. Universities, fighting to uphold national policies, have adopted strict “zero tolerance” policies – even though they inadvertently drive students into unsafe, unhealthy drinking practices. Alcohol in America has become more than a drug. Today, it is both an antidepressant and an icebreaker. Today, it is the chief celebrant and the hidden healer. Today, students, from both Harvard and Hillsbrough Community College, from both Phoenix and Philidelphia, are forced to face the ubiquitous social experience labeled underage drinking. Entering college, students quickly realize that drinking and getting drunk are synonymous. Few people are taught how to drink, and social drinking is simply not an option. Each shot must be lesson, each beer, a quiz; and if your head stays out of the orifices of a toilet bowl, you’re except from a final, hungover exam. Universities use strict Resident Advisor practices and scare tactics to discourage students from drinking, but the numbers have not gone down. Binge drinking (drinking in excess of four standard drinks) is the new norm, and policy makers are so busy trying to punish the various outcomes of drinking, that they often forget about educating youth to prevent its misuse.

Breaking away from this inefficient system, Leland Stanford Junior University has developed an alcohol policy to harness the education that students find in downing shots and chugging beers. The policy at Stanford is especially unique because of the “Fundamental Standard” – a touchstone that governs interaction between the administration and students. The Standard is a social, and ethical contract to uphold the law and policy, and implicit within it is the understanding that students are responsible for making their own decisions and accepting the consequences of those decisions. The Standard states unequivocally: “The letter and the spirit of the Fundamental Standard – trust, individual responsibility and good citizenship – is the core of the Stanford Alcohol Policy and the administration can deal with watching over and educating the students rather than punishing them” (University Policy). The Standard has been especially effective as the driving force behind the alcohol policy because it approaches student conduct issues from a perspective that places emphasis on individual responsibility and development: “What really matters is what students decide to do,” the Standard states, “It’s their health, after all, and their safety that they’re most responsible for” (University Policy). Resident fellows, resident advisors, and school administrators are all set up to look out for students and to educate them, but it’s up to students themselves to create a policy that makes sense. At Stanford students learn how to drink. Administrators know they drink. They see students drink. But, finally, a university has decided to teach underage drinkers the right way to drink, instead of punishing them for the action.

In what follows, I will contrast the coordinated ineffectiveness of the national minimum drinking age and many universities’ “zero tolerance” policies with the success of Stanford’s alcohol policy. Through tracing the history of alcohol policies in the United States and presenting further statistical backing, the inefficiencies of the national policy will become glaring. The debate on lowering the minimum drinking age will then arise from the ashes of this inept national policy, and will be further ignited when examining the ineffective policies on college campuses across the country. Extrapolating on unsuccessful university policies, student opinions from various universities will be presented as a call for change in the national drinking policy. In conclusion, Stanford’s policy will be unpacked to demonstrate how permissiveness to alcohol consumption can add to the overall flexibility and oversight that a school has over its student body. The character of Stanford’s policy is very pragmatic in its ability to educate and it will be readily apparent that a similar strategy could be applicable on a national scale. In a toast to Stanford, the mission of this essay is to validate Stanford’s sobering syllabus as a best practice and to expose the prolific affect a lower drinking age would have on the perilous drinking culture in the United States.

As I sat there, looking up at my RA with glossy eyes, I knew I needed help. For me, there were no guidelines. I had misused alcohol. I had fallen down the same path a many other underage college students. I cannot prove that Stanford’s alcohol policy is the perfect solution. I cannot show that students drink less because of our environment. But, because I live here, because I have learned here, I have changed – and become more intelligent and responsible in how I consume alcohol.