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Stanford's Tougher Alcohol Rules Prove Effective

Stanford's successful effort to exempt itself from Santa Clara County's new rules on underage drinking has put a focus on the university's growing effort to curb alcohol abuse on campus, writes John Wildermuth for the San Francisco Chronicle.

The new ordinance makes it easier for police to cite anyone hosting a party where underage drinking occurs, and can mean a fine of up to $1,000 plus costs anytime the police are called in.

About 95 percent of Stanford's 6,600 undergraduates live on campus in university-owned housing. The school could have found itself facing plenty of potential liability under the new county rules, but the financial question didn't play a role in the university's attempt to persuade county officials to free Stanford from the regulations, said Jean McCown, the school's director of community relations.

"We already have a significant commitment to curbing underage drinking and require that on-campus parties be registered," she said. "We were concerned that the county rules would send those parties underground and out of sight."

A study released last year by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism found that there were 1,825 alcohol-related deaths among 18- to 24-year-old students in 2005, the last year with available figures.

"We get students cited on campus every weekend," said Ralph Castro, director of the university's Substance Abuse Prevention Project.

In the 2008-09 academic year, 44 underage students were taken to a hospital emergency room because of alcohol abuse. Seventy-three were arrested for possession of alcohol by a minor, 13 for being drunk in public, and five for being a minor driving under the influence.

For the past four years, university officials have required each incoming freshman to take a three-hour online course on alcohol abuse. Groups hosting parties have to register them with the school and provide the name of the person in charge.

"When (the ordinance) came up at the Board of Supervisors last year, we brought them information about our programs," McCown said. "We asked them to watch us for a year and see how it worked."

Stanford received a 12-month stay of the new law last year and then worked with the county to do what was needed for a permanent exemption.

"We already had a program on board that our students understand and believe in," Castro said.

But with the increased county regulation, Stanford toughened its alcohol policies. Move-in day for resident students was moved a week closer to the first day of school, trimming the number of party nights before classes begin; Stanford police boosted their presence on nights when parties were scheduled; and a few on-campus fraternities were temporarily banned from having alcohol at parties because of incidents of underage drinking last year.

Their efforts worked. Last Tuesday, Santa Clara County supervisors unanimously approved a new version of the ordinance that "explicitly exempts officers and agents of institutions of higher learning."