As a result, students seem more comfortable turning to friends, roommates or student groups, instead of proctors and administrators, in potentially life-threatening situations.

Administrators say they must tread carefully in order to maintain the delicate balance of policy enforcement and student health and safety.

The challenge for Lewis, then, is finding a viable policy that conforms to the law and also shows concern for student health--and selling it as a logical combination rather than a balance of competing interests.

Staking Out Students?

Tales circulating throughout the College about first-years' experiences with the alcohol policy seem to validate students' mistrust of administrators.

One member of the Class of 2004 recalls a routine advising meeting with her proctor early in the fall semester when the proctor casually asked what her plans were for the night--to which she answered that she was having dinner with friends.

But when she arrived drunk at the Crimson Sports Grille later that night, she was given a rude awakening when she saw her proctor sitting at a table with Assistant Dean of Freshmen Philip A. Bean.

"[My proctor] called me over...He said, 'This is Dean Bean,'" she remembers. "So I shook hands with Dean Bean, at the Grille."