Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson rejected last week a recommendation by a disciplinary committee to remove kegs from campus, citing his review of policies at other universities as a strong factor. But administrators at campuses across the nation have been unable to reach a consensus regarding the use of kegs in university housing.

Many universities across the country – including large research institutions and Catholic schools – have enforced effective keg bans in recent years, while numerous others have held to less restrictive alcohol policies. Schools like Boston College, Dartmouth College and Harvard University have lifted their policies banning kegs in recent years, while many other universities – including University of Maryland, University of Notre Dame and the University of Pennsylvania – currently enforce keg bans.

Olson said that he reviewed the effectiveness of polices at many universities – private, public and Jesuit.

“All the information I received was valuable, and I would not say that any single institution or type of institution was more influential than the others,” Olson said.

Olson, after receiving a recommendation from the university’s Disciplinary Review Committee last spring to remove all kegs from university housing, decided last week that the university will enforce a maximum of one keg per residence starting in August. He said that the new rules will reduce alcohol consumption while allowing students to socialize on campus.

Throughout the decision-making process, many students and local residents argued that a ban on kegs would increase students’ hard liquor consumption and ultimately lead to greater alcohol abuse.

Some administrators across the nation, however, say that their policies prohibiting alcohol use have had the opposite effect.

“Like every other university, we have our problems, but over the past four or five years we have seen a noticeable decrease in the number of serious intoxication cases,” said Dennis Brown, assistant vice president for news and information at Notre Dame.

Notre Dame has enforced a keg ban for the past three decades, and in 2002 added an additional policy banning hard liquor from university residence halls.

“We instituted other policies, including the hard alcohol restrictions, in 2002, and we think those have been tremendously successful,” Brown said.

Stephanie Ives, director of strategic initiatives at UPenn, said that her institution’s policy of fining students $500 for each keg found in on-campus residences has produced tangible results in recent years.

“The price cut you get buying kegs is lost by being fined,” she said.

Ives said that she could not speculate whether the policy has decreased student alcohol use, since it has been in place since her arrival eight years ago.

Other top American schools, however, have chosen in recent years to reinstate kegs on campus after previously enforcing policies prohibiting them.

Dartmouth officials decided to enact a complete keg ban in 1991, only to revoke it the following year.

Former Dartmouth Dean Lee Pelton, who helped bring kegs back on to campus, told the student newspaper The Dartmouth in 1998 that his decision was based largely on the fact that the keg prohibition promoted student hard liquor consumption.

“I would much rather have parties with beer than hard alcohol,” Pelton said at the time.

At Boston College, former Dean of Students Robert Sherwood found similar problems with hard alcohol after BC instituted a keg ban. He said that spiked punches and other hard drinks increased at campus parties, according to a Boston Globe report in 1990.

BC has since overturned its ban.

The keg ban created more problems than it solved, Sherwood said.

“Before they know it, they’ve drunk six glasses and are unconscious,” he said.

There is no uniform rule for Catholic universities regarding alcohol policies.

While there is no agreement on a foolproof alcohol policy, the Inter-Association Task Force, an organization that studies alcohol policies, has attempted to create a model campus alcohol policy. This model does not prohibit kegs from campuses, but stipulates that events should not advertise the amount of alcohol available.