What Hath Rum Wrought?

Alcohol consistently causes headaches for the administration.

1775

Founder Eleazar Wheelock writes in his diary: "Last week John Pain, Innholder was complained of by Mr. Sever Tythingham to Esq. Woodward and myself for having a bad house; viz indulging Mr. Michael Duguet, Joseph Verrieul and Lewis Vincent, an Indian, at his house contrary to law."

1811

An undergraduate objects to the rumor that "the students were never so dissipated as at present." He writes, "This opinion might much more be applied to the medical students, than to the members of the College."

1835

The Theological Society urges a boycott of all merchants who sell liquor.

1841

The Dartmouth Hotel becomes the target of an anti-alcohol boycott. Commencement banquets and faculty functions are relocated because the hotel serves alcohol.

1892

Robert Frost selects Dartmouth over Harvard because his grandmother worries about the Cambridge drinking scene.

1924

President Hopkins threatens to expel any student caught drinking.

1976

The Statue of Liberty is the model for the snow sculpture. In the Dartmouth version she holds a beer.

1985

New Hampshire's drinking age is raised to 21. Three-quarters of the. student body become too young to drink.

1989

Surveys indicate that Dartmouth students are drinking less.

1996

National Public Radio's Elizabeth Arnold interviews presidential hopeful Bob Dole inside Alpha Delta. The reporter remarks that the wood-paneled room smells like stale beer.