Jason Cassidy, director of housing and residence life at Furman University, left, responds to a question about the university%u2019s dry campus policy during a meeting of the Association of Furman Students in the Watkins Room in the University Center. Greg Beckner/Staff
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Furman's dry campus questioned

Students say their intent in requesting a policy change is to curb high-risk drinking and exercise their legal drinking age rights.

by Cindy Landrum

Published: Sept. 24,10:30 a.m.

Furman University’s student leaders are expected to pass a resolution on Monday asking the school’s board of trustees to reconsider a long-standing rule that keeps the campus virtually dry, even for students of legal drinking age.

“It’s an archaic policy that should have been changed 15 years ago,” said Reese Wade, a 21-year-old junior political science major from Dallas, Texas.

Student unrest about the policy has hit a crescendo this year, in part because of stepped-up law enforcement off campus designed to reduce underage drinking and a policy that forces most Furman students to live on campus.

“It went from tolerable to unbearable this year,” said Wade, who along with another student created a Facebook group, “The Furman Alcohol Policy Needs Immediate Reform,” which got 800 members in eight days. “Students just feel really constrained on what they can do.”

Furman’s days as a dry campus dates back to the school’s affiliation with the Southern Baptist Convention until 1992.

No alcohol at all was allowed on Furman’s campus until 2003 when the board voted to allow alcohol to be served at private, catered events at Timmons Arena, Cherrydale Alumni House, the Furman Golf Course and the Younts Center. Students who are 21 are allowed to have alcohol at supervised, university-approved events in the designated areas.

Trustees said at the time the change was made because the number of outside groups renting campus facilities and requesting they be allowed to serve alcohol was increasing.

At that time, then-board chair Leighan Rinker said the trustees were committed to keeping the residential and academic areas of the campus alcohol-free.

Since Oct. 2008, when the Furman Golf Course was re-opened after renovations, the public has been able to purchase alcohol in the golf course clubhouse.

Dick Riley, the former U.S. Secretary of Education and vice chairman of the Furman board of trustees, said the board is always interested in student concerns.

“We will be kept informed about the conversations taking place on campus, and we would give careful consideration to any proposals that might come out of those conversations,” Riley said in a statement. “But this is the sort of discussion that must occur at the administrative level in great detail before it becomes an issue for the trustees to consider.”

Students say that the school’s restrictive alcohol policy encourages students to engage in high-risk drinking. They say their effort is not an attempt to condone underage drinking.

“Forcing students to feel like criminals for engaging in completely legal behavior is wrong,” said Jay Friedman, a junior political science major from Birmingham who will turn 21 in November. Friedman created the Facebook group. “We’re just asking that students of legal age be allow to reflect their Furman education by being allowed to make responsible decisions.”

Connie Carson, the school’s vice president for student services, told students on Monday that she would support their effort if they make a reasonable argument on why the policy should be changed.

Carson said the students’ proposal needs to address the benefits of the change as well as the problems it will create.

There’s no one agency that keeps track of dry college campuses, but a Harvard study estimated that one of three college campuses ban alcohol.

Jason Cassidy, Furman’s director of housing, did his dissertation on dry college campuses in 2005.

Of the 52 private institutions categorized as liberal arts baccalaureate colleges in the nine southeastern states, 27 had dry campuses. According to Cassidy’s research, 81 percent of the dry campuses were religiously affiliated. But 80 percent of the wet campuses were also religiously affiliated.

In South Carolina, nine other colleges and universities have dry campuses: The Citadel, Anderson University, Benedict College, Charleston Southern, Columbia College, Erskine College, North Greenville College, Southern Wesleyan University and Bob Jones University.

Lander University bans alcohol from its residence halls but allows it at some functions. At the College of Charleston, alcohol is banned in some residence halls. In other halls, students of legal age are allowed to bring in alcohol “only in amounts that can reasonably consumed by one person in one day,” defined as a six-pack.

While Furman students want the alcohol policy at their school relaxed, other colleges and universities are tightening their policies as concern over binge drinking among college students has escalated.

Carson told students that Davidson University, which Carson said has a “wetter” alcohol policy than Furman and is one of Furman’s peer institutions, is in the process of tightening some of its alcohol policies.

“Many of the campuses that have much wetter policies than we do are adjusting to drier,” Carson told the students. “Research doesn’t show universities going from dry to wet.”

Many schools change their alcohol policies after tragedies, Carson said.

That’s what the University of Oklahoma did after a freshman died at a campus fraternity party after a night of binge drinking. His blood alcohol level was five times the legal limit.

The University of Oklahoma isn’t the only public school to go alcohol-free. The University of Tennessee system bans alcohol on campus as well, Carson said.

On Furman’s Web site outlining the school’s alcohol policy, it says that students on dry campuses are 30 percent less likely to be heavy episodic drinkers, regardless of their alcohol consumption in high school, than those on wet campuses.

Eleven percent fewer Furman students have driven while under the influence than college students nationally and 14 percent fewer reported binge drinking, the Web site said.

Seventy-five percent of Furman’s students are under age and shouldn’t have alcohol anyway, the Web site said.

Furman spokesman Vince Moore said that Furman’s board has never considered a student request to change the campus’ alcohol policy.

Carson said that an attempt by students to get the policy changed a couple of years ago never really got off the ground because students did not present a united front.

“It has to be a concerted effort,” she told the students. “You cannot be divided and expect to get anything changed.”

Any proposal would have to be approved by Furman’s Substance Abuse Coalition, the university’s administration and the student life committee of the board before being considered by the full board. Ben Ables, president of the Association of Furman Students, said he hopes a proposal could go before the board in either November or February.

“Furman students are responsible people,” he said. “We should be able to follow the law. This isn’t a Greek house issue. This is about students who are 21 and who are drinking responsibly.”

Cassidy said the administration won’t take anything before the board that condones underage drinking.

“Furman can’t endorse breaking state law,” he told the students.

Students said they thought university officials were telling law enforcement when and where student organizations were having parties.

Carson said they don’t.

“Furman is not giving out student information. We’re not telling them where the houses are,” she said. “The reality is they already know where those houses are.”

Cassidy said Furman will not change its policy only to see violations skyrocket.

He said about 40 percent of the university’s disciplinary cases involve alcohol in some way.

“Alcohol is the number one issue on college campuses across the nation,” he said. “Students here need to know that law enforcement is conducting DUI checkpoints and party patrols. But you also have to understand that students have to make choices. In the end, it comes back to student choice.”

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