Students who are 21 and older will now be allowed to consume alcohol in university residence halls due to changes announced yesterday to the university’s alcohol policy.

The new policy also drops two of the most common alcohol-related violations, one that targeted underage students found in the presence of alcohol and another that targeted underage students found with empty alcohol containers.

“These violations were perceived as a nuisance,” Todd Olson, vice president for student affairs, said, adding that the time processing the sanctions for the violations was “not the most productive use of staff time.”

The Discipline Review Committee offered seven recommendations to Olson last week and Olson said yesterday that he had accepted six.

The DRC recommended banning kegs in on-campus apartments and townhouses, and while Olson said that he would continue discussion on the issue throughout the following year, he did not accept the change.

“Most other Jesuit universities do ban kegs. Kegs are very clearly associated with rapid drinking, with high-risk drinking. That’s all clear,” Olson said, but said that he wanted further input from the campus community before making such a decision.

“I thought it would be something of interest to the campus community, and I look forward to continuing a dialogue on that issue throughout the upcoming year,” he said.

The changes further rewrite rules for party registration, now called notification, and will require one student of legal drinking age to register the party as opposed to the original policy, which required a majority of the apartment’s residents to register the party. Under the new policy 12 people, not the current 20, constitute a party that needs notification.

The registration would be done online and will be due by 8 p.m. on the night of the party instead of the previous three-day in-advance deadline.

“We acknowledge that students don’t always plan their parties well in advance,” Olson said. “At the same time, we still want to have a conversation about how to hold a party safely and responsibly.”

The policy revisions also increase sanctions for repeat violations. A survey on student alcohol use conducted last fall found that few students drank excessively but that the entire community had felt the effects of excessive drinkers.

Drinking games will be considered an “aggravating factor with regard to sanctions for violations,” but will not be considered a violation alone.

Discussions on a new alcohol policy began in September when the FRIENDS Initiative developed proposed revisions.

Mike Glick (COL ’05) and Katie Boogaard (COL ’04) are chairs of the FRIENDS Alcohol Policy Team and helped push the revisions through.

“I’m very pleased because it shows that at the end of the process the administration took the student led effort, respected it and made changes that will have a positive influence on student life,” Glick said.

Bogard also said she was “pleased” and noted that the proposal was “a collaborative effort from the very first day with students and faculty involved.”

Olson said he forwarded the proposal to the DRC while asking the committee to also consider other relevant changes.

Olson explained that many individuals had been consulted from around campus before making the changes.

“It’s all about doing the right balancing act,” he said. “We want to treat students as responsible adults and we want to maintain a safe environment.”

Most students seemed happy about the changes to Georgetown’s alcohol policy.

“It’s about time this happened,” Melissa Cranston (COL ’07) said. “The policy was unfair and it often targeted students who weren’t involved in drinking.”

The DRC is a standing committee that is charged by the vice president for student affairs to examine different aspects of the university’s discipline policies. Earlier this month Olson accepted all of the DRC’s proposed revisions to the sex assault policy.

– HOYA Staff Writer Moises Mendoza contributed to this report.