In April, a dramatic drug bust at the College led to the arrest of two Currier House students. Harvard University police officers with a search warrant entered the room of two senior men and confiscated drugs and a computer. The two had allegedly been distributing drugs, including "ecstasy," LSD, hallucinogenic mushrooms, and marijuana in several areas across the campus. Other students, including at least one woman with no history of drug use prior to her enrollment at the College, were allegedly involved in the distribution.
Although the quantities of narcotics in this case, according to Harvard's police chief of six months, Francis D. "Bud" Riley, M.P.A. '90, were "not the level of distribution that our district attorney's office would be interested in investigating," Riley nevertheless called the incident "significant for this community." He pointed out that the role of the University police is to enforce community norms as well as College rules and policies. In this instance, he says, "There were several students who registered concern for the well-being of fellow students because of their use of narcotics directly related to these people who were distributing."
The case has raised a number of issues for the Harvard community. One is that of drug use, which is perceived to be on the upswing. Another is the precise role of the University police. Some students recall being told that getting into trouble with the campus police was better than tangling with the Cambridge police. But "when you commit a felony [as in the Currier House case], you've crossed the line," says dean of students Archie Epps. "This is not a safe haven from violation of the law."
The University has handled this case in a way consistent with previous incidents, according to Epps. "We just don't see the Currier kind of case very often," he says. "There were cases like that earlier, in the sixties and seventies." On the other hand, perceptions about what is acceptable behavior may be changing. "There was a period," says Epps, "when the use of marijuana was thought to be a cause for getting help, but it has always been the case that trafficking or distribution...would lead to separation from the College." "Nowadays," he stresses, "even use may cross that line."
Given that drug use among high-school students is on the rise, college campuses nationwide can reasonably expect to experience a similar increase, according to Dr. David Rosenthal '59, director of University Health Services (UHS). Rosenthal notes that drug and alcohol abuse at Harvard College follows very closely the trends that appear in relevant national studies (see table). Although no published longitudinal studies on the subject deal exclusively with Harvard, a 1993 study conducted by Henry Wechsler, lecturer in health and social behavior at the School of Public Health, found that 15 percent of Harvard undergraduates (more than 1 in 7) had used marijuana or hashish in the 30 days prior to the study, compared to a national rate of 14 percent. Says Wechsler, "All signs suggest that we're in for an epidemic."
Nevertheless, when asked about substance abuse at Harvard, researchers, health officials, deans, and police all point to alcohol as a problem far more serious than any other. A national study conducted by Wechsler and others clearly links "binge drinking" to "a variety of alcohol-related health, social, and academic problems" (see "The Booze News," March-April 1995, page 20). Wechsler's study, which defines binge drinking as five or more drinks at one time, one or more times over a two-week period for men (four drinks within the same time frame for women), showed that bingers were two to four times more likely than nonbingers to have a hangover, do something they regretted later, miss a class, forget where they were or what they did, get behind in school work, argue with friends, engage in unplanned sexual activity, have unprotected sex, get hurt or injured, damage property, or get into trouble with campus or local police. Harvard police chief Riley confirms that "alcohol is our number one problem here. Almost invariably, when someone gets in trouble or someone gets in an accident it's tied to alcohol or drugs. Most of the time, it's alcohol."
Nationally, the rate of binge drinking varies greatly among U.S. colleges, from a low of 1 percent of the student population (at denominational institutions) to a high of 70 percent (at north-central and eastern colleges with high student participation in athletics and in fraternities and sororities). Harvard falls somewhere in the middle. In 1993, for example, 41 percent of Harvard students were classified as binge drinkers, a rate slightly lower than the 47 percent rate for other large private colleges. Wechsler's study revealed that the rate of binge drinking is lower among minorities, married people, students attending college on the West Coast, and women.
Attempts to curb alcohol abuse are rarely effective unless students believe drinking can harm them-which is why, since becoming dean of the College in 1995, Harry Lewis '68 has been trying to raise awareness among students about the dangers of drinking to excess. Studies have shown that student perceptions about the dangers of drug abuse do mitigate their use of narcotics (and led to the Currier House bust), but alcohol is rarely considered a drug, and overindulgence is widely tolerated. This despite the fact that "most cases of violence, sexual misconduct, and the like are associated with alcohol abuse," says Lewis.
The dean has borrowed an effective tactic, first suggested in Henry Wechsler's study, from recent antismoking campaigns that have focused on the dangers of secondhand exposure. In a letter to students last fall, Lewis pointed out that those who drink to excess endanger their own health and well being, and also the health and well-being of others. "Part of our education effort," he says, "is to make roommates understand that they do not have to put up with repeated disturbances or illegal behaviors in their rooms." "Overconsumption of alcohol," he reminds students, "is a violation of College rules that can result in serious disciplinary action," including cancellation of the offender's rooming contract.
Chief Riley, who doesn't drink himself, says he has no problems enforcing the policy established by the dean, but adds, "That does not mean that I'm going to have my officers hiding in the bushes, waiting for someone to come by with a six-pack." Riley's children drink, he says, and "I will make the same accommodations for the students here that I would make for my own kids." His options for dealing with problem students range from "helping them out of a jam" to "using administrative action to be a lever." Says Riley, "I'm a firm believer that people who have a problem need some incentive to fix the problem." If the experts' predictions are accurate, Riley may have his work cut out for him.
