In a reaction that will surprise no one who has ever been or met a college-aged person, Stanford University students are expressing vigorous opposition to a proposal that seeks to curb on-campus alcohol abuse by banning booze in undergraduate dorms.
In an email sent to students last month, as CBS 5 reports, Stanford president John L. Hennessy "explained there were too many instances of undergraduates over-drinking, and that hard alcohol has been connected to many problems, including sexual assault."
The timing of the email coincided with the conviction of Brock Turner, a Stanford swim team star accused of publicly sexually assaulting an intoxicated woman in 2015.
In his email, Hennessy proposed a hard alcohol ban for undergraduate housing. And students responded with joy, saying the ban is a great idea! Ha ha just kidding, they think the idea blows.
In an on-campus vote Friday, students opposed any change to the school's current policy, which allows on-campus drinking "as long as we keep the doors open," sophomore Cole Simmons, a Theta Delta Chi fraternity member, told CBS 5.
“I think you’re kidding yourself if you think that kids aren’t going to buy hard alcohol,” senior Myles Keating, another Theta Delta Chi frat member said.
“It’s absolutely right that we’re discussing sexual assault and discussing alcohol use and making sure that it’s healthy and happy but an outright ban is taking a law-enforcement approach to what is really a medical problem.”
A Stanford spokesperson contacted by SFist declined comment on the possible ban, and said that they administration is "still collecting student feedback" before determining if tighter booze regulations are the way to go.
For Simmons' part, he's certain that a ban will make things worse, not better.
“If there’s a ban on hard alcohol then people are going to have it anyway,” Simmons told CBS 5.
“At a lot of other schools, talking to my friends, they’re kind of scared of their RAs; they’re scared their RAs are going to take their alcohol and pour them down the sinks and so they always do it with a closed door, trying to chug all their hard alcohol or beer before the RA could get to them.”