To get their dose of alcohol, some students would even travel to nearby states, such as Vermont, where the new minimum age drinking law did not take effect until 1986, Messina says.

Messina adds that while he “wasn’t too thrilled” about the new restrictions, he was not militantly opposed.

“It was still somewhat reasonable to me at the time,” he says.

ADAPTING TO NEW RULES

After the College implemented the new policy, many students voiced their worries about the potential decline in social life.

“When you host a party, you want to include everyone,” Schroeder says. “[The new policy] limited the number of people that came.”

In spring 1986, the Undergraduate Council’s residential life committee published a 10-page report that analyzed some of the detrimental effects of the new alcohol policy on House life. Houses would incur new financial burdens because “events not serving alcohol are expensive. Some elaborate theme must be conceived and paid for, and creative, relatively expensive refreshments must be served,” the report said.

“We definitely had non-alcoholic parties, which were themed to try to have events that people can get excited about,” Messina says.

To resolve students’ concerns, the Undergraduate Council passed a resolution calling on the College to establish a special fund to give Houses more money to throw creative parties—an initiative which was then approved by then-Dean of the College L. Fred Jewett ’57. The fund also covered the cost of hiring bouncers to check IDs at events which did serve alcohol.

“Dean Jewett very wisely said, ‘We will make it easier for you to pay the expense,’” says Dean of Freshman Thomas A. Dingman ’67, who served as the assistant dean of the College for the House system at the time.

THE EFFECT

Despite worries about the deterioration of the social scene, Dingman, Getz, Messina, and Schroeder all say the new policy was not especially disruptive.

“I didn’t see the law changing the social dynamics at Harvard, since it was still a relatively new issue,” Getz says.

In fact, the majority of students in the Class of 1986 were unaffected, as most had already turned 21 by the time the law was put into effect. In addition, a grandafther clause allowed those who had turned 20 before the passage of the law to retain their drinking rights.

Dingman says he believes there was a bigger culture change in 1979, when the Mass. drinking age increased from 18 to 20.