Dartmouth College to ban hard alcohol on campus

(Reuters) - Dartmouth College will ban hard alcohol on campus as it seeks to cut down on binge drinking among students, the Ivy League school's president said on Thursday. The ban, which applies to students and all college-sponsored events, comes at a time when universities across the United States are trying to fight what the White House has described as an "epidemic" of sexual assault. The Hanover, New Hampshire, college is among the more than 50 elite U.S. learning institutions that the Department of Education is investigating to see if their policies on sex assault violate U.S. laws requiring equal treatment for men and women in higher education. Researchers say the culture of binge drinking on college campuses has fueled sex assaults. Dartmouth's president, Phil Hanlon, did not directly link drinking to sex assault, but noted that drinking hard liquor leads to emergency room visits. "The Steering Committee found that high-risk drinking is far too prevalent on our campus and that in the vast majority of alcohol-induced medical transports, it is hard alcohol — rather than beer or wine — that lands students on a hospital gurney," Hanlon told the college in a speech on Thursday. Dartmouth will increase penalties for hard alcohol possession, Hanlon said. He did not specify how the penalties would change. (Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)