A tall blond girl stumbles toward the Carrier Dome. Her arms wrapped around two of her friends, she cocks her head back and screams, “We are the No. 1 party school!”

No one blinks an eye.

This wasn’t always a common sight. In the 1870s, consuming alcohol off campus could get you expelled. Over its 146-­year history, Syracuse University has transitioned from a strictly dry campus to one of the nation’s top party schools.

Michael Hevel, a professor at the University of Arkansas who is currently working on a book about the history of alcohol on college campuses, said he suspects less has changed than people may think. He said he has found that despite campus rules, drinking has always been part of campus life, just not one in full view.

“I don’t really think there’s too much new about the party school atmosphere,” Hevel said. “I think that one of the things that history shows is that it’s not a new problem. It’s something educators have dealt with for a long time.”

Zach Barlow | Asst. Photo Editor

The beginning
The Methodist State Convention held its annual meeting in the winter of 1870 in Syracuse and passed a resolution to start a university in the Salt City. Soon after, on March 30, 1870, SU was officially founded.

There was no official policy against the use of alcohol on campus, but the Methodist Church — at that time and now — preached abstinence from all forms of drugs, including alcohol, according to the SU Archives. Hevel said this was common when campuses were closely associated with a religious organization.

In the early 1900s, SU began to provide on­-campus student housing and adopted a brief policy stating there would be no drinking at home or on school property, according to a 1914 Daily Orange article.

Prohibition
When prohibition went into effect, not much changed at SU since it was already a dry campus.

Then-Chancellor Charles Flint wrote an official damnation of the 21st Amendment repealing prohibition in an article in The Daily Orange.

“Traffic in intoxicating liquors, not merely for 15 years but for 15 centuries and more, has been generally recognized as the most prolific cause of poverty, crime and misery,” Flint wrote.

Flint wrote that he was in favor of prohibition, but in the end “the hole in the dike was too big for my puny hands.” He condemned those who saw the sale of alcohol as a chance for profit and urged the SU community to avoid drinking altogether as it degraded “moral convictions.”

The university made it clear that the repeal of prohibition did not change its own stance on drinking, telling The Daily Orange the policies in the student handbook were “to be strictly adhered to.” That meant students abstain alcohol or else, face expulsion.

The 1960s: Free love, plenty of beer
Peter Jeffer cracked open a can of beer, leaned his head back and drank. In one swift motion, the president of SU’s student government in 1967 challenged an almost century-­old rule in front of the entire student organization.

He was trying to make a point. The student group was pushing for legislation that would allow drinking at university social functions and in SU buildings, according to an article in The Daily Orange.

In a series of investigations by various student judicial organizations and the university, Jeffer was eventually let off the hook, and no disciplinary action was taken against him. His actions created a domino effect that could not be stopped.

A committee of students, faculty and staff approved a policy on Feb. 8, 1968, to allow drinking at college events, according to the SU Archives.

A little over a year later on March 9, 1969, a Post-­Standard headline read: “Tradition broken as beer flows at SU dance.”

Chase Guttman | Staff Photographer

Four years, three drinking ages
Scott Dann, a Class of 1986 SU alumnus and a member of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, had to borrow his friend’s driver’s license for two weeks.

After being able to drink for his entire college career, it was suddenly illegal for him to purchase or possess alcohol. So he bummed a license from his fraternity brother so he could indulge in the culture he had grown accustomed to, Dann said.

He had just missed the cutoff when the drinking age was raised by the state in 1982 from 18 to 19. It was a governmental effort to curb the amount of drinking­-related driving deaths.

In 1984, Congress passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, which required states to raise the legal ages for both the purchase and public possession of alcohol to 21 by October 1986. If the states didn’t comply, they’d lose 10 percent of their federal highway funds. New York state abided, raising the minimum age on Dec. 1, 1985.

SU adjusted its drinking policy to match the state’s standards.

“I don’t think it affected a lot,” said Dann, whose daughter is currently a freshman at SU. “My hypothesis is that if kids want to drink they are going to drink. It wasn’t going to stop anybody, it may have made it more difficult for some people to obtain it, but for the most part it was readily available, it was never really a problem.”

As a result of the age change, the SU campus favorite bar and concert venue, The Jabberwocky, was forced to close its doors. A school­-sponsored bar couldn’t survive with 75 percent of its population suddenly being underage.

Zach Barlow | Asst. Photo Editor

Riots rage in grunge–­filled 1990s
An alcohol-­fueled crowd of 1,000 students and others hurled insults, beer bottles and more at authorities in an almost three-­hour-long standoff on Livingston Avenue in 1999.

The annual block party known as “Livingstock” turned into a riot, after police came to shut it down after the permit time of 10 p.m. expired, according to an SU Magazine article. Students reacted violently, throwing items at police officers and starting a fire. Rioters stoked bonfires made of mattresses, branches and lawn furniture, and they formed human barricades to prevent firefighters from reaching the flames.

At 1 a.m., a reinforcement squad of 50 police arrived to stop what had become a full­-scale riot.

By night’s end, 39 people — including 15 SU and seven State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry students — had been arrested on charges ranging from littering to rioting in the first degree, according to the article.

“We are very fortunate that a neighborhood didn’t go up in flames and that no one was seriously hurt,” said Barry Wells, who at the time was SU’s senior officer on matters related to alcohol and other drug abuse and is now a special assistant to Chancellor Kent Syverud, in a statement. “You can analyze this a million different ways, but the bottom line is that this mob behavior was sparked by the excessive consumption of alcohol.”

Millennials mix drinks and school
SU’s official alcohol policies have changed only slightly since the ’90s. A ban of kegs at registered campus parties made the most notable splash, but overall the policy has stayed the same.

The administration’s most critical reaction to student drinking came when The Princeton Review ranked SU the No. 1 party school in August 2014.

Kevin Quinn, senior vice president for public affairs at SU, released a statement saying the university was disappointed with the party school ranking.

“We do not aspire to be a party school,” the statement said. “With new leadership, we are very focused on enhancing the student experience, both academically and socially. Students, parents, faculty and the full Syracuse University community should expect to see important and positive changes in the year ahead that will improve and enhance the student environment in every aspect.”

Published on April 4, 2016 at 11:53 pm

Contact Jacob: jagedets@syr.edu