Travia on the Job

The rising incidents of alcohol abuse on Harvard’s campus are undeniably sobering. The College is rightly disturbed by this ever-growing epidemic and it has taken a laudable step in the right direction by appointing Ryan Travia as the Director of Alcohol and Other Drug Services. Travia’s new ideas and perspective may go a long way in addressing the problem of alcohol abuse. However, he, and Harvard’s alcohol policies as a whole, will only be successful so far as he is allowed to promote an open and honest dialogue about alcohol use on campus.

Alcohol use and underage drinking are unavoidable facts of college life. Students will find ways around rules meant to keep them away from watering holes, and the harder the College tries to enforce these rules, the deeper students will dig underground to find ways around them. By attempting to stamp out underage drinking, the College will instead push students farther away from the resources that can help them drink safely, resources that can save their lives.

This is particularly true of freshmen, who, despite being almost entirely underage, make up the largest percentage of students admitted to University Health Services (UHS) for alcohol-related hospitalizations. In the first semester of last year freshmen made up 43 percent of the alcohol-related visits to UHS.

The approach of the Freshman Dean’s Office thus far has been to enforce policies aimed at keeping freshman dorms completely dry. Effectively, these policies ensure that there are no discussions about alcohol use by freshmen unless they are caught drinking or have an alcohol-related medical emergency. These policies have produced more dangerous behavior than they have prevented. Instead of seeking help, students drink large quantities of alcohol in short periods of time to avoid getting in trouble. Alcohol policies have only succeeded in pushing freshman drinking underground.

Freshmen orientation also fails to deal with alcohol in a realistic and useful way. Far less attention is paid to alcohol abuse during orientation than to sexual assault, and while freshmen hear about the rules and punishments for drinking, very little to nothing is said about safe alcohol use.

Travia’s new ideas seem focused on dealing with these problems in a meaningful way. While there are some questions as to the efficacy of social-norm campaigns, the idea seems to strike at the root of the most significant problem: the lack of an open and honest dialogue. Knowing that 78 percent of college students consume zero to five drinks during a night of partying may not have exactly the effects Travia predicts, but at least it admits that drinking does happen.

Travia also is right to want to get students more involved in advising each other about alcohol. That said, creating a new peer group may be wasteful considering the plethora of peer groups already in existence. Instead, Travia should consider offering special training to members of already existing groups, which would help consolidate the peer support network.

The problem of underage drinking and alcohol abuse can only be cured through honesty and realism. Travia’s background and perspective suggest he might very well be the right person to start this process, but he will only be able to do his job effectively if the College is willing to engage in an open dialogue about a reality it has previously seemed to deny exists.