Wednesday morning, Provost John Etchemendy Ph.D. ’82 and President John Hennessy emailed the student body to start a “new conversation” about alcohol misuse. They write that the campus community has worked together to fight the problem through initiatives Cardinal Nights, educational efforts and accountability measures for fraternities and sororities.

Unfortunately, they said, alcohol misuse remains a persistent problem, to the point that they have contemplated “options that we have not in the past, including broad bans on hard alcohol in undergraduate residences.”

On Tuesday night, University administrators, including Etchemendy and Hennessy, met with resident fellows (RFs) from across campus to discuss their thoughts on banning hard alcohol from Stanford residences.

According to University officials, there are, however, no immediate plans to ban hard alcohol.

“[W]e believe a serious campus conversation is what is called for at the moment,” wrote Hennessy and Etchemendy in their email.

Despite the lack of concrete plans, the email has generated concern among the student body. An ASSU election petition opposing a ban on hard alcohol gained 1,721 signatures from students.

ASSU executive John-Lancaster Finley ’16 also expressed skepticism towards such a ban.

“The reality of college is people do it [drink alcohol], so make sure people are pursuing a safe and healthy approach,” Finley said.

“The motto of Stanford is the winds of freedom blow, and having a police state is not fulfilling that goal for the undergraduate student body,” he added.

This story will be updated.

Contact Victor Xu at vxu ‘at’ stanford.edu.