Stanford bans liquor from parties after sexual assault case shocks campus

New rules banning ‘hard alcohol’ and ‘shots’ from campus events
were unveiled months after Brock Turner blamed his sexual assault
on school’s ‘party culture’

Sam Levin in San Francisco
Tuesday 23 August 2016 00.46 BST

Stanford University has banned liquor from campus parties with a new policy that critics say is a tone-deaf response to growing concerns about sexual assault.

The elite northern California school – which faced widespread scrutiny after former swimmer Brock Turner was convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman outside a fraternity – announced on Monday that “hard alcohol” and “shots” of liquor would be banned from all on-campus parties open to undergraduates.

The new rules – which also prohibit certain “high-volume” liquor containers from undergraduate housing – were unveiled months after Turner blamed his sexual assault on Stanford’s “party culture ... surrounded by binge drinking and sexual promiscuity”.

In its announcement, Stanford said the policy change is designed to “reduce the availability and accessibility of hard alcohol” and is part of a broader effort to “meaningfully change the campus culture around alcohol”.

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