"All freshmen are underage, while a significant number of upperclassmen are not," Lewis writes in an e-mail message. "So from a practical standpoint, alcohol in the freshman dorms is automatically a violation of state law and College policies--in the Houses, it is not."

"[And] people who are drinking to excess for the first time are more at-risk," he says of first-years.

Despite the fact that first-years and upperclass students technically conform to the same College rules, practical differences in administrative chains of command lead to different results in the Yard and in the Houses.

When a drunk first-year checks into UHS, nurses call that student's assistant dean. The assistant dean then contacts the student's proctor who asks the student if the visit was alcohol-related. If so, the proctor must report the violation back to the assistant dean, who can then call the student in for further questioning.

But when upperclass students check into UHS, their senior tutor gets the call and will contact the students directly by phone or e-mail--or not at all. Students' resident tutors may not ever find out about the visit.

Resident tutors say they always inform their senior tutors about alcohol violations, but do not report fearing for their jobs if they fail to do so.

"I'd be surprised if that information didn't find its way over to me," says Glenn Magid, Allston Burr senior tutor in Leverett House.