You could drink in the dorm, but you had to drink in your room – no open containers in the hallways. The dancing events had alcohol, but again, it had to be in the dorm. I don’t think that there was a alcohol % limitation when I was there, because I do remember my friends drinking Southern Comfort on campus on a regular basis. Kegs and keggers on campus were definitely out, although supposedly there were some regular keggers in Caroll Hall during the 80’s that were quite the rage.

The amount of unopened alcohol that you could transport to your dorm in anticipation for a party was an amount that could be “reasonably consumed by a normal adult.” Yes, vague, but that translated to essentially 2 twelve-packs per person – at least that is what I remember witnessing when people were “stocking up” before an SYR.

Alcohol and keggers off-campus were nearly impossible to police and control, so the University only got involved if you got a DUI or were sent to the ER for drinking too much.

I do remember one year when a student (or it may have been a friend of a student) fell out of a third story window in Pangborn (after a night of excessive drinking) and impaled himself on a steel rod that was sticking out of the ground at 3:00 am. He extracted himself from the rod and crawled to the front of the dorm, only to be found by the custodian who came to clean the dorm on that Sunday morning. I think he died, but I am not sure.

If Clausen was drinking off campus (which I am sure he was, considering that the dorms don’t look as “nice” as where they were partying), then I doubt the University will do much more than a minimal reprimand and maybe make him do some “alcohol” counselling. It really is a non-issue.

Up through the 1980’s, alcohol was not only allowed at dorm dances, but served – with the full knowledge of the dorm rector (who was a Holy Cross priest and/or brother). However, a few underage students being taken to ER every so often, alcohol was no longer served at dances by the time I enrolled in 1992. Still, the students provided their own, and drank in their rooms and in the hallways quite openly during my first year.

This changed during my second year, when it was no longer OK to drink in the hallways. Some people still occasionally brought an open beverage into the hallways, but the only couple of times that I can remember someone getting “caught”, nothing came of it. The Standing Operating Procedure from dorm rectors during my remaining time at ND appeared to be “I don’t care if you drink, just a) don’t flaunt it and b) don’t end up vomiting on the bathroom floor or getting your stomach pumped in the ER.”

From what I’ve heard and read, the rules have gotten more restrictive since I graduated. The explanation for each tightening of the allowances has always included the citing of incidences of binge drinking, especially at dances.

The rules for drinking at ND are still much more lenient than they were at U. of Kansas in the ’80’s. In KU’s dorms, no alcohol was permitted – period. The rationale was that, as a public state institution, anyone living on state property (the dorms) was subject to the state’s drinking age restrictions. Since just about everyone in the dorms was underage, no alcohol was allowed. If you were caught – even in your own room – with alcohol, you were written up by hall security and had to go a mandatory “meeting”. If you were caught a second time, you were booted out of the dorm.

Jimmy got the spotlight he so desperately wanted, and it shines 24/7.

I dunno. Maybe we should ask the 2 top-5 recruiting classes Weis just brought into ND.

Still too soon.

ND parties no more or no less than any other campus in the US.