What's Your Policy? Welcome

What’s Your Policy?

Imagine a group of friends getting together for a party on a Saturday night. Consider that each person is actually choosing his or her own “policy” for using alcohol. In this hypothetical room, there may be someone who only drinks on the weekends, someone who drinks beer but not hard alcohol, someone who doesn’t drink at all, another friend who considers him or herself a wine expert, and someone wants to get loaded. Each person has made a decision that balances their own preferences (how they want alcohol to affect them) and their sense of what’s appropriate for this time and place. Sometimes, decisions may vary on the "personal responsibility meter", but in every case, people choose their own “policy”, per se .

Most of us at Stanford maintain a healthy lifestyle, balancing academics, health, and an active social life. Socializing often involves alcohol, which is a drug that affects each individual in different ways under different circumstances.

Sure, it’s pretty predictable that people will get mildly buzzed or very drunk, depending on consumption. But, consider this..., in reality, we all react differently to the presence of alcohol in our system. So, it’s up to each of us to learn how alcohol affects us both physiologically and behaviorally, make choices consistent with our values, and set our own personal policy about whether and how we choose to drink alcohol.

In this handbook, we’ll take a look at a wide range of information that can help you form your own decision or “policy” on using alcohol. We’ll start off with the facts and figures about how your body processes alcohol, and how you can protect yourself from adverse or unwanted effects. We’ll also look at the wide spectrum of drinking patterns, including abstinence, light drinking, heavy drinking, alcohol abuse and alcoholism.

In the second section we explore how we are affected by alcohol use on campus, and take a critical look at the Stanford ethos of taking care of each other. If you have ever wondered what to do with a friend who had too much to drink, this info should be helpful.

The final sections will “demystify” the big picture of alcohol as a factor in campus life by discussing University policy and state law. We’ll also take a look at how the University responds to alcohol policy infractions. We’ll see similarities and differences between disciplinary responses to individuals and student groups, as well as consider types of infractions.

Finally, we offer you a wide range of campus resources.

We hope that this handbook assists you in developing a personal policy that is well informed, and supports you in making healthy, safe and responsible decisions about alcohol use.

You, as a member of the Stanford community, are vital in preserving and supporting our safe and healthy campus.

Keep it up!