Three cheers for Dartmouth president Philip Hanlon and his ban on hard liquor on campus. The only question is, why did it take this long for a college president to go the prohibition route? Or at least the modified prohibition route, since beer and wine are evidently still to be permitted.
First of all, the drinking age in this country is 21, which means a lot of our tippling scholars have probably been in violation of the law, not to mention those nominally in charge of them. Second, college drinking is often the precursor to a lifelong problem with alcohol. Third, even moderately heavy drinking lays waste to the brain. Fourth, the DOJ “Sexual Assault on Campus Study” found that “the majority of sexual assaults occur when women are incapacitated due to their use of substances, primarily alcohol.”
Maybe with a ban on hard liquor we could cut down on the 1 in 4, 1 in 5 women who report some kind of sexual assault, harassment, misconduct, however defined, during their years in college, and also, therefore, the amateurish kangaroo courts that have been dealing out monstrous injustices to many accused young men. And I am sure we could reel off numerous additional benefits to abstinence on the college campus, such as more attention to study, culture, and self-improvement.
I believe that more college presidents will follow the route that pioneer Hanlon has marked out.