Stanford Bans Hard Alcohol at Undergrad Parties

After months of headlines about the heavy drinking culture at Stanford thanks to the Brock Turmer rape case, the university has announced new rules on drinking: No more hard alcohol at undergrad parties, reports the Stanford Daily. Beer and wine are still OK, but no booze more than 40 proof or 20% alcohol by volume. Undergrads can still keep hard alcohol in their dorm rooms, provided the bottles are smaller than 750ml. “Our intention is not a total prohibition of a substance, but rather a targeted approach that limits high-risk behavior," says a school official. Critics, however, think the new rules carry risks of their own—specifically, students "pre-gaming" in their rooms before parties.

“I actually think this is putting students in danger,” Stanford law professor Michele Landis Dauber, who has been critical of the school's sexual assault policies, tells the Guardian. “It’s going to drive it underground … and encourage this super quick consumption not in a public area.” The Turner case "highlighted for many women’s advocates how sex assault cases are often trivialized as a result of the college drinking culture," observes the San Francisco Chronicle, though a campus spokeswoman says the new policy is not directly related to the case. (More Stanford University stories.)