After Death at Penn State: What Can a President Do to Change Campus Culture?

Abby Drey/Centre Daily Times via AP

After a sophomore at Pennsylvania State University died in February following a night of hazing, binge-drinking, and apparent neglect by his fellow fraternity brothers, the university’s president wrote a blunt letter to the campus’s Greek community. His frustration nearly jumped off the page as he described the many ways the university had tried and failed to rein in high-risk drinking and wild parties.

Eric J. Barron called Beta Theta Pi’s reputation as a model fraternity a “charade,” unveiled still more restrictions on Greek social life, and threatened to ban alcohol in the Greek system altogether. Yet even he wasn’t sure any of those steps would matter. “If new rules can just be ignored, or behavior just goes underground, and if there is no willingness to recognize the adverse impact of excessive drinking, hazing, and sexual assault, then is there any hope?”

Many college presidents have despaired over the reckless partying on their campuses, both in and beyond the Greek system. In 2014, Philip J. Hanlon lamented the “extreme and harmful behaviors” he found at Dartmouth College as he called for “fundamental change” in the social scene. In 2013, John C. Bravman decried the “self-degrading” acts Bucknell University students committed while outrageously drunk during House Party Weekend, abuses that led him to ban it.

But what can presidents realistically do when students enter college familiar with blackout drinking, drugs, hazing, and a host of other activities that begin in high school? And how much can they control when so much of the action takes place in off-campus housing, bars, and apartments?

“It’s one of the hardest uphill battles we face in higher education,” says Walter M. Kimbrough, president of Dillard University and an expert on hazing. “We don’t have any wind at our back on this fight.”

Presidents who have lived through painful experiences like the death of a student say that, as hard as it is to find solutions, campus leadership is crucial to tackling this complex issue. Through a combination of education and enforcement — both of which require resources — along with their bully pulpit, presidents can create a focused and sustained conversation around those problems. “Now is a good time on campus to talk to students and say, Explain it to me,” says Mr. Kimbrough.

No campus has come close to solving the problem, but a few college leaders have put it at the top of their agenda. Jonathan C. Gibraltar, president of Wells College, spent nearly a decade tackling binge-drinking as head of Frostburg State University. He also has participated in several national organizations, including as co-chair of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism’s college-presidents working group.

“This tends to come on the radar of college presidents when it’s too late,” he says, “when something really catastrophic happens.” He thinks Mr. Barron struck the right tone in addressing the community, but adds that there must be strong consequences behind the words: “You have to walk the walk.”

At Frostburg, where much of the trouble took place off campus, Mr. Gibraltar spent years building relationships with landlords, bar owners, and the police. He told incoming students and their families that they weren’t welcome if all they wanted to do was party. He struggled with underground fraternities, and several students died of alcohol-related behavior on his watch.

But the percentage of undergraduates who engaged in binge-drinking dropped significantly over time, according to student surveys, and the first-year retention rate rose from 67 percent to 80 percent. That was the result of a multifaceted approach that included a strong disciplinary system, anonymous tip lines, and an alcohol-amnesty policy to encourage students to seek help even as underage drinkers.

One strategy he found particularly effective, he says, was to talk about how much drinking cost the campus in terms of student dropouts and staff time. “You have to be fiercely consistent about this,” he says. “In some cases it takes years to change campus culture.”

Allies and Adversaries

Experts say presidents are often stunned by the depth of the alcohol problem on their campuses. At Miami University, in Ohio, just two weeks after a freshman died in her dormitory in January following a night of drinking, 21 students were hospitalized for extreme intoxication, many of them underage women, according to a local news report.

Only six months into the job, Gregory Crawford, the president, pledged to deal with high-risk drinking on the campus, telling his Board of Trustees that he was calling in experts and reviewing every program. “Everything is on the table,” he told them.

The university already had a number of policies in place to counter high-risk drinking, but has since ramped up its efforts, including new strategies to combat the use of fake IDs in the active bar scene steps from the campus.

John D. Clapp, associate dean for research and faculty development at Ohio State University’s College of Social Work, whose focus is research and policy on drug and alcohol prevention, says few presidents are experts in this area. While research, strategies, and advisers are out there to help, people don’t often know where to start. Add to that a host of potential adversaries — including bar owners who want to keep selling cheap drinks and alumni who threaten to pull donations over any crackdown on the Greek system — and it’s easy to see why tough talk often leads to little action.

After Mr. Barron’s letter was posted online, many of the responses criticized his focus on the Greek system, arguing that the entire group should not be punished for the actions of a few. About 17 percent of Penn State’s students are in a fraternity or sorority.

“It’s hard for universities because you can’t just buy an off-the-shelf program to fix this,” says Mr. Clapp. “You’ve got your own culture, your own norms to contend with, and then typically you’re in the middle of some community that has its own alcohol environment.”

Glenn F. McConnell, president of the College of Charleston, has been navigating those waters since a series of dangerous incidents last summer, including the alleged rape of a freshman by two fraternity members at an off-campus party, led him to temporarily suspend all alcohol-related activities at fraternities and sororities. Over the past few months he has overseen the closure or discipline of several Greek houses.

Mr. McConnell, a former lieutenant governor of South Carolina who became president of the college in 2014, says it’s important to blend enforcement with an appeal to integrity. “I told them when I got here, Look, I’m a product of the Greek system, and I think it has great value. I’m going to hold you to a higher standard. I don’t want you to mess this up.”

For those presidents who have been working at it longer, the challenge has been unceasing. At Bucknell, Mr. Bravman has been talking to undergraduates for years about the dangers of binge-drinking and other high-risk behaviors, knowing that plenty of students will simply ignore his words. He describes his style as “pretty direct and blunt,” telling students, in effect, that we know what you’re doing in dorm rooms and fraternity basements.

Bucknell has put in place a medical-amnesty policy, undertaken a campuswide survey to find out more about student behavior, and opened a new health and wellness center with eight full-time psychologists for a campus of 3,600 students. “We think the alcohol situation is largely how youth today deal with stress — from academics, from home life, from relationships,” he says.

Mr. Bravman admits there’s no sure way to tell how much of difference all of those steps are making, but says he has an obligation to keep trying and keep preaching. “My whole career is about faith in the future unseen,” he says. “If you can save one life, it’s all worth it.”

Beth McMurtrie writes about campus culture, among other things. Follow her on Twitter @bethmcmurtrie, or email her at beth.mcmurtrie@chronicle.com.