Alcoholics of the World, Unite

By Greg Boguslavsky | Friday, March 3, 2006

Following in the footsteps of Dr. Bob Smith, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous and member of Dartmouth’s Class of 1902, two alums have brought AA to campus. Bill ’67 and Jay ’55 have both struggled with alcoholism and are using their experiences to reach out to current students. Bill played football and baseball at Dartmouth and was in a jock fraternity, while Jay did not drink in high school nor throughout freshman year. Both believe that there is a need on a campus for a place where students can come together and discuss their alcohol problems in a supportive environment.

The program itself is not affiliated with the College, nor are they AA meetings in the true sense. Bill jokingly refers to the meetings as “AA Light” because they are open and do not require any commitment. Students concerned about anonymity can rest assured that the College does not track attendance in any way, but merely provides the room. However, students in attendance can certainly recognize each other, which could make for an awkward encounter in a frat basement.

The more important issue is that it is difficult to determine who exactly is an “alcoholic” on a campus fond of its warm Keystone. In the frat basement, the locus where daily sensibility meets the hazy world of the rage, the limits of responsible drinking are constantly tested. This blurring of boundaries begs the question of whether a program that weans participants off of the blue-canned ambrosia is viable or even relevant to a campus youth culture. The guys who run the AA meetings acknowledge that they are not trying to make people stop drinking or make a statement on the Greek system. Their goal is to allow those who need to scale back their drinking an opportunity to take control and improve their lives.

Bill is concerned that students who cannot control their drinking are falling into the same trap as he did during his time at Dartmouth. “I did very little except drink or recover from drinking until Monday morning,” he said of his weekend activities. This pattern prevented him from taking advantage of the College’s other assets missing out on opportunities that do not present themselves ever again. Jay added another important problem, namely that consumption of alcohol can be a way to improve one’s emotional state and mask underlying issues, such as depression. Jay admits of his own experience with alcohol, “There is no question in my mind…that I was self-medicating.” The two men believe that students with unrestricted consumption patterns are missing out on the complete Dartmouth experience, as well as hiding potential problems.

However, many of the students who drink do so responsibility. Whether through self-control or physiological limitations, many students do not regularly drink to the point where they wake up sprawled on the floor next to some guy in a towel. Bill and Jay are targeting a certain demographic of students; they are primarily concerned with students whose irresponsible behavior is shielded by concerned friends to the point that they never have to face their problems. Bill cites the one or two brothers in every fraternity who have reached this state, but who are protected by peers. He attributes this situation to a fear of coming to the attention of the Parkhurst Inquisition and its attendant consequences, whether a prolonged leave of absence from Hanover or a parent suddenly arriving to live in one’s common room. The result, says Bill, is that the “person just gets shielded from addressing the core issue, which is that he can’t handle alcohol.”

Since starting these meetings at Dartmouth, Bill and Jay have been fighting the familiar uphill battle, trying to raise visibility and increase turn-out. Their hope is that at some point there will be enough interest to turn the meetings over to the students. In the meantime, those who need help must break from the various stigmas associated with AA, including the stigma attached to being sober and to the word “alcoholism” itself. The battle is indeed uphill. Other factors that inhibit attendance at the meetings include the tremendous peer pressure to drink and the “feeling of being bullet-proof and not worrying about whether you have a problem or not,” as Jay posits.

Once students overcome these barriers and recognize that they need help, they may find a lack of resources on campus. According to Bill and Jay, there is a void in the current system that they are trying to fill. Dick’s House has only two part-time counselors for the entire student body; it can take weeks to schedule an appointment. The College’s attitude is to recognize that a student has a problem only when the individual is caught in the criminal or medical systems. And once this happens, the student is often placed on medical leave.

More significantly, there are simply no viable alternatives to the frat scene. Anyone who argues the contrary is a reclusive shut-in, a resident of East Wheelock, or an incorrigible liar—and most likely all three. COSO activities are absurd, unless, for example, one wants breakfast at midnight before a night on the town. But who in their right mind would sit around the Common Ground at night watching Cool Runnings? There could be a Drag Ball every weekend for students who do not want to drink, but then Cross-dressers Anonymous may supplant AA. Evidently there are precious few legitimate sober activities at Dartmouth, only the extremities of schoolwork and rage. Students who may want to curb their drinking will find little enthusiasm in College programming and will have to act as best they can on Bill’s advice: “One of the most important things you can learn in college is how to have fun sober.” Pong or Scandinavian improvisational dance at the HOP? Tough call.

With their AA meetings, Bill and Jay are providing a valuable service to our community, one that more students should utilize. Whether you want to stop drinking, drink less, or just gain more control over your drinking, go and talk to them. They will gladly share their own experiences and encourage you to achieve your goals. No, the meetings are not perfectly anonymous nor perfectly true to the AA format. But the next time you are in a basement and recognize a fellow AA attendee, you can both put down that tenth beer. After all, that is what AA is really about.

Alcoholics of the World, Unite

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