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Administrators criticize 10/10

by David Montgomery

In the days leading up to the campus-wide 10/10 party on Oct. 8, Dean for Student Life Jen Krohn met with the party organizers and SGA to ensure that the party would not get out of hand. Three weeks later, Krohn and Vice-president for Student Services Tom Crady said that this year’s party was “problematic.” Three arrests were made and one student was hospitalized.

Before the party, Krohn learned that there would be illegal drugs at the party. She would not disclose her source. “When we get information that there’s going to be drugs on campus, we tell the police,” she said, adding that the college is subject to strict federal anti-drug laws. “If Grinnell doesn’t follow federal drug law, we can lose federal funding,” she said.

Police also received one of the flyers advertising 10/10 before the event and were aware that alcohol would be served. “Pretty much any party that gets posted, we get a copy of it,” said Grinnell Police Chief Jody Matherly. “If it’s a large party ... we want to be prepared to handle things,” he said.

Grinnell College has one of the most liberal alcohol policies among colleges in the country, since beer is served at official campus parties. “When the Feds changed the drinking age back in the eighties, we decided to take a pretty liberal approach to drinking on campus,” said Crady. “We didn’t want students to drink and drive. We didn’t want students to not report [other students’ alcohol poisoning]. Overall, we’ve enjoyed a pretty good period where students have been very responsible.”

Crady, who is in charge of college alcohol and party procedures, said that he isn’t considering changing the alcohol policy at this time. He said that next year he will work with students “to come up with a clear set of strategies for managing this party.”

SGA President John Bohman ’06 said that he thought the party, which was organized by the Ultimate Frisbee team, was reasonably successful. “None of the incidents happened at any of the parties, other than the fire alarms,” he said. “Hospitalizations were low. In any big party, incidents always happen. There was a really organized, coordinated and sustained effort on the party organizers’ side.”

Richard West ’06, one of the organizers of 10/10, agreed that the party was organized to run smoothly and safely. “We had several people that weren’t drinking at all, cleaning, making sure that people weren’t destroying things and helping out people who were sick,” he said.

Krohn felt that students could go further. “I personally would like to see greater structure and greater commitment to our policy,” she said. “Do I want to bring in folks to have a major crackdown? Nobody enjoys that.”

The official rules require that alcohol not be carried outside. Shots and bottles of alcohol are banned. Illegal drugs and underage drinking are also prohibited by federal law. Food and non-alcoholic beverages were provided at each location.

Crady said that he thinks that while the average party at Grinnell has not become more disruptive, 10/10 is an outlier that is becoming more problematic. The last time the college alcohol policy was revised followed a year in which there were over 20 alcohol overdoses, which he said forced him to take action. “Are we at that point at the moment? I don’t think so,” Crady said. “Does 10/10 concern me? A great deal.”

Bohman said that student leadership can’t make policy changes that would really affect partying. “If the SGA comes in and says ‘you can’t do this,’ [students] are going to do what they want to,” he said. “Where we have influence is in persuasion.”

Crady and Krohn want leadership from students.

“When we have to pick up the pieces from the parts of parties that don’t go well, we have a tough time with that,” said Krohn. “It’s not fun, it’s not the part of our job we enjoy.”

—additional reporting by Katie McMullen

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