Dartmouth College recently announced its plan to better the university’s party reputation by banning all hard alcohol on campus. The efforts are commendable, but Dartmouth is going about change in all the wrong ways.

The ban is trying to eliminate risky behavior completely, when in reality that’s not going to happen. Instead of banning hard alcohol, Dartmouth should focus its efforts on aiding responsible decision making.

Dartmouth is notorious for its party reputation and binge drinking. It’s this high-risk drinking that Dartmouth President Philip J. Hanlon believes is leading to an increase of sexual assaults on campus.

The school hasn’t always had the best reputation for handling sexual violence on campus. Still under federal investigation, Dartmouth was recently accused of mishandling sexual assault crimes. It’s easy to see how the elite status of the school is being compromised by these high-risk behaviors.

In addition to the hard alcohol ban, Dartmouth will also introduce a mandatory 4-year sexual assault awareness program.

While the goals of the program are admirable the expected outcome is no guarantee. Most students are already aware of the prevalence of sexual assault on college campuses. The proposed program isn’t going to be teaching students things they don’t already know.

Those who engage in sex crimes are well aware of their actions and the consequences, no matter if hard alcohol was consumed or not.

A better focus for the university to take would be to gear programs towards the victims and provide a medium for sexual assault victims to reach out for guidance and support. While Dartmouth currently has a sexual assault hotline and various counselors, more can be done to ensure that all concerns are treated properly and seriously.

It’s wonderful that Dartmouth is addressing the issue of sexual assault, high-risk drinking and harassment on campus, but the way in which they’re going about it is all wrong. You can’t take heroin from an addict and expect them not to get it through other means.

In other words, students aren’t going to suddenly stop drinking hard alcohol on campus, they’re just going to be craftier at how they do it. If anything, the ban will encourage even more risky behavior because students might not feel comfortable alerting authorities when hard alcohol is consumed in secret and things do get out of hand.

The ban concentrates too much on eliminating the outside factors involved. Dartmouth is better off focusing on the students involved and implementing programs that encourage responsible decision making.