Harvard's expected move to prohibit underage drinking on campus would bring the College into line with about a dozen area schools.

An informal Crimson survey of 15 local and Ivy League colleges found that 11 have prohibited underage drinking and two are considering adopting stricter alcohol regulations.

At Yale University, whose revised policy has been cited as a likely model for Harvard, students' social life has been dampened and drinking has gone behind closed doors, Yale undergraduates and officials said yesterday.

Sobering

Yale began enforcing Connecticut's legal drinking age this fall by issuing special identity cards to 21- year-olds that allow them to get drinks at open parties. All campuswide parties must use bartenders from a pool of authorized people, and alcohol has been banned from freshman dorms.

Yale police this fall have closed several parties held at the college's Old Campus, which houses freshmen, and one private party that attracted too much attention, according to Aaron Panner, a reporter for the Yale Daily News.

The recent crackdown has succeeded in "squashing" underage drinking at campus parties and has made the Yale lifestyle "stale," said Mark Watts, chairman of a student committee that plans campus social events.

Behind Closed Doors

In an attempt to circumvent the new regulations, more students are partying in private, Watts said.

Yale Dean of Student Affairs J. Lloyd Suttle said the college was allowing private parties to continue serving alcohol. "If it's strictly within students rooms and private we're not enforcing it so long as they don't spill out of the entryway," he said.

But campus rules require that all parties with more than 20 people must be registered in advance with the master of the residential college-the equivalent of a Harvard housemaster.

"There have been fewer of the large parties where the alcohol flows freely, but there have been one or two parties each weekend," Suttle said.

The new policy "has caused a lot of problems for students looking for entertainment. I've had three years here that were a great deal more fun that this one now," said senior Frank D. Bracken III, a founder of the fraternity Kappa Sigma.

Even fraternities are feeling the crunch. While the new rules may have contributed to heavy numbers at rush, half of the events were non-alcoholic and fraternities are being more careful about their parties, Bracken said.

Other colleges feeling the pinch include: