American Notes Colleges

It has been the centerpiece of countless late-night dormitory parties. But the enduring popularity of the venerable beer half-keg has led dozens of colleges to ban its use in an effort to curb campus alcohol abuse. This year Princeton University banished the container, concluding that underage undergraduates will find it more difficult to purchase the same amount of beer in cans and bottles from local liquor stores. But many Princeton alumni have opposed the ban, explaining in a letter that bottles and cans were "more likely . . . to cause injury" than a plastic keg cup.

Meanwhile, Princeton's neighbor to the north, Cook College of Rutgers University, has tapped into a different idea: encouraging the use of kegs. Students who want to host campus parties must attend a seminar on responsible drinking and register a keg with the school before serving the brew. Rutgers officials acknowledge that the policy was drawn up only after concluding that it was virtually impossible to keep track of the cans and bottles students had secretly stashed away. Under the new restrictions, says Lee Schneider, the dean in charge of monitoring the plan, "students will act responsibly and take responsibility for others."