<y student recently found out, this past week Northfield adopted a new social host ordinance that gives law enforcement officials new abilities to charge people who knowingly host parties where underage consumption of alcohol is taking place. Naturally there has been a lot of commotion among the Carleton community as many students are worried that the police will come barging into every campus party and not only issue citations to underage drinkers but also start charging everyone who hosts parties under this new ordinance.
This is just not the case. Yes the ordinance does give the police more power but they will not come into campus party to break it up unless they are called. Just like before this ordinance came into effect, as long as parties do not get out of hand, which is usually the case for a majority of Carleton parties, then the attendees and hosts should not have too much to worry about, and should be able to continue to enjoy themselves in a fun, responsible manner.
The real effect this law has is on off-campus parties. In the past the police would only give noise citations for parties off-campus, and maybe issue citations to underage students caught leaving the party. Now the people living at those residences could face up to $1,000 fine and 90 days in jail. What this means for the Carleton community is that off-campus residents should feel less inclined to pack their houses full of 100+ students out of fear that if the police get called they will be stuck with this massive fine, since undoubtedly, it is impossible to control who consumes alcohol at a party, no matter how hard you try to limit access for underage students. Given that students make a lot of noise traveling to and from campus it is probably better for the Carleton and the local community that less raucous parties will be hosted off-campus as this will improve relations with local residents.
We are extremely lucky to have a school whose policy on alcohol gives a lot of responsibility to the students to make good responsible decisions, and for the most part many students do make good choices in respect to their partying and consumption of alcohol. As long as we keep our parties on-campus and under control, this new ordinance really should not effect any members of our community. As long as we, as students, don’t give the police a reason to come on campus and as long as off-campus parties are kept reasonable so that police do not have to get involved, then hopefully this ordinance will not have an effect on any Carleton students.
The editorial represents the views of The Carletonian editors