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According to administrators from Connecticut College, Yale University, and Trinity College, on-campus parties involving the distribution of alcohol must be registered with their university but do not need a liquor permit from the state. 

The University’s policy, which the Administration said is based on state law, requires all student group parties with alcohol to have a permit. 

"Wesleyan is known for its leniency and now it’s annoying that we are not as lenient as Trinity and the other schools," said Leslie Burns ’03.
 

Furthermore, students at Trinity and Connecticut College have direct input into the shape and direction of their schools’ alcohol policy. Wesleyan students do not.
 

"It is critical to have their [students’] input in order for any kind of policy to work," said Mary Thomas, dean of students at Trinity.

When asked why the other institutions are exempt from state alcohol law, Wesleyan Dean of Student Services Mike Whaley is without a definite answer. 
 

"If those other institutions check with the state of Connecticut they’ll get the same answers we got. I can’t explain why other institutions don’t have the information from the [Connecticut] liquor control board," Whaley said.
 

Whaley favors the creation of a task force comprised of students and administrators who would discuss the University’s alcohol policy. However, because there has been no change in the University’s alcohol policy in the past decade, Whaley says that there has been no need for such a group.
 

"I really believe strongly that students can sit down and look at things from every perspective and make difficult choices," Whaley said. 
 

"I think that it would be very wise to get together a group of administrators and students to... look at all the complex issues surrounding alcohol and drugs at Wesleyan."
 

Thomas said that when students are taken out of the picture it creates a dangerous situation of finger pointing.
 

"We don’t want the two sides [administrators and students] to become an armed camp. There certainly is a potential for that to happen," Thomas said.
 

Kristine Cyr Goodwin says her goal as associate dean of student life at Connecticut College is to get students involved in creating an effective and fair alcohol and party policy. 
 

Connecticut College has an alcohol policy recommendation committee and a health promotion and risk reduction task force. The former group is comprised of students and administrators who review the alcohol policy and make recommendations to improve it. 
 

The task force’s goal is to get students from all walks of campus life to sit down with members of the faculty and administration to discuss ways to make the policy safer for students. The key is having different members of the campus community meet face to face.
 

"When the three groups aren’t together they blame each other," Goodwin said. "We need to stop blaming and to stand up together... nobody wants people dying." 
 

Beta Theta Pi President Pete Bryniczka ’01 is skeptical about the usefulness and potential of a student/administrative task force on alcohol.
 

"I definitely think in theory it [a task force] would be useful. But it’s no longer Wesleyan policy, it’s the states’," Bryniczka said. "There is no more Wesleyan policy–it’s state policy applied to student life."

Whaley disagrees. He maintains that although the primary substance of the policy will remain unchanged, there is a need to clarify and direct some aspects of the party code.

"There’s no doubt that students are confused about the [state] statute... [also] I think that our current policy sends a mixed message to students whether you can drink if you’re underage. I think that that ambiguity causes a great deal of confusion," Whaley said. 

"What it means to me is that the residents around Wesleyan’s campus are tired of the immature drunks and have gotten on the schools’ case to make a change, and this is it," said Dan Wolfson ’03
 

"It is obvious that a school of Wesleyan’s caliber did not overlook the state’s alcohol policy and is only trying to abide with the wishes of the neighboring community," Wolfson added.
 

"There definitely has been a change in the [party] scene; this is what’s driving it- the statute," Whaley said. 

"My preference would be to form a group of students and administrators to really take a wholesale look at our policy. I think that definitely should be done in a collaborative way."