Suggestions that were merely discussed by a committee charged with recommending changes to the school’s alcohol and drug policy will not be pursued after all, administrators and Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA) officials say. The considered ideas would have banned open containers of alcohol in public places, mandated that all kegs be registered, and banned all hard alcohol on campus.

“After reviewing the suggestions, the committee will not be recommending policies banning open containers in public areas, hard alcohol on campus, or large containers, like kegs,” said Allison Quantz ’10. “It was determined that the ideas were not practicable at this time and would probably not fulfill the committee’s purpose of promoting a healthy and safe environment on campus.”

Lisa Currie, who chairs the Alcohol and Drug Committee, said that the ideas, if implemented, would be difficult to carry out.

“The trickier part is the enforcement,” she said.

The discussion arose out of a review of university drug and alcohol policy mandated by the Department of Education.

“The biennial review is a report that is federally mandated [to assess campus] prevention programs,” she said. “Our real motivation is to take the writing of the report as an opportunity to take a critical look at the campus. If we hadn’t completed it we would have lost federal funding.”

In the report, there are warnings for inexperienced and sexually charged freshmen.

“Some real problems with [pre-gaming] are dangerously high blood-alcohol levels, students actually not leaving their rooms and drinking more, and (especially among frosh) the increased probability of random hook-ups that can have longer-term consequences for the students,” read the report.

While the restrictions on drinking will not go into effect, there are other ideas that are still under consideration.

One is a student EMT program, similar to programs already in place at Tufts, that would use students already trained and certified as EMTs to help evaluate their inebriated peers for alcohol poisoning. Under current policies, students are directed to call Public Safety if they are concerned about an instance of alcohol poisoning. In turn, Public Safety takes students to the emergency room. Because of the expense and inconvenience of this care, students are sometimes reluctant to seek help. Under such a program, calling the emergency room would not be necessary since the EMTs would have the proper training to treat students. Currie said she was open to the idea.

“There has been conversation about a student-EMT program,” she said. “I’m not opposed to such a program; my only concern is that it gets done well.”

The other suggestion would lift the requirement that Reslife staff report underage drinking and alcohol use. Currie, however, does not seem to support the idea.

“I would not change that,” she said. “Students play a valuable role in maintaining community standards.”

On the other hand, she also opposes making Residential Advisors (RAs) into hired enforcement officers.

“We don’t want to have RAs walking around with clipboards like storm troopers,” she said.