'Quarters' Quartered; 'Thumper' Thumped

Students at Stanford University may be forced to point with their fingers instead of their elbows if the Residential Education department succeeds in its attempts to abolish popular but "dangerous" drinking games such as "Quarters" and "Thumper."

But the department's penalties for continued play at these games are about as strict as those for missing the glass in "Quarters."

"It has never been our intention to punish or reprimand people or have any kind of follow-up other than continuing discussion about the games and our concern about the dangers associated with them," said assistant Dean of Residential Education Alice Supton.

The department feels that drinking games can get out of hand and force students to drink too much. In some versions of "Quarters," anybody who points with their finger must drink a glass of beer; in "Thumper," a chug is the required quaff for messing up a series of hand signals.

"The reaction has been pretty negative against the Res. Ed. department. Students feel it is too much of a restriction on something done on their own free time," said Maria R. Meier, a sophomore at Stanford.

In recent years, the Residential Education department has required that alternative beverages be served at campus functions and has asked students to de-emphasize the fact that alcohol will be served at advertised parties.

"If the name of a party is the name of a drink, it gives the idea that you are going there specifically to drink," said Meier. "And by requiring that an 'equally attractive' non-alcoholic beverage be served, they mean they don't want someone at a frat party saying 'Okay, there's the water fountain."

"Students are pretty cool about these things, but I think they are going to ignore the restrictions on games, and so will the RA's"--the residential advisers who have been charged with enforcing the anti-drinking game legislation. "On the whole, the RA's here don't like to play the role of an enforcer," said Meier.

"I have heard recently that some RA's have come in and asked some students to stop," Meier said. "But my guess is that an RA would not go so far as to report a student.