Alcohol related incidents on campus have increased in the past year, according to Jan Stockdale, Dean of Undergraduate Studies. Stockdale has reported her concerns to the School’s Personal Security Group, which she chairs, and the School will be investigating ways to reduce incidents directly due to drinking as well as those where drinking played a large factor, such as those involving sexual and/or physical violence, whicharefrequentlyalcohol-related.“[Incidents]…involving sexual and/or physicalviolencearefrequentlyalcohol-related. The intake of alcohol often affects people’s judgment of their surroundings and/or the intentions of others. Any attribution of causes for such an increase would be speculation, but it has been argued that the low cost of alcohol relative to incomes has been a factor in an increase in alcohol consumption with all its attendant risks,” Stockdale stated.In light of an increase in alcohol consumption related incidents, Stockdale has renewed her efforts to bring this to the forefront of student issues: “whilst I would like to highlight that alcohol consumption is an increasingly worrying issue, it is not a new problem.  About two years ago, I reported my concerns about personal security/safety issues affecting students.”AlexPeters-Day, General Secretary of the LSE Students’ Union reassures, “we are making efforts to increase awareness amongst LSE students. In fact, we are planning…an awareness week towards the end of the term, whereby students would be invited to design campaigns for creating alcohol awareness and the chosen campaign would win a prize.”

The Three Tuns is looking into establishing loyalty cards. According to Alex Bond, Manager of the Three Tuns: “we are planning to introduce loyalty cards to provide better services to students as part of our promotion activities. This idea is still in progress and we are aiming at including both alcoholic and non-alcoholdrinks. We might include food items as well if the idea works well.”

Peters-Day, a sponsor of the Three Tuns loyalty program, adds “we try to maintain balance between everything, it’s not that we want to refrain students from drinking but we make sure students are drinking in a responsible way.”

Ed Szymanski, President of the Student Committee at Northumberland Halls, stated: “we do bring alcohol while celebrating special occasions in the common room for students but the amount spent on alcohol is not as much as compared to the amount spent on food.”

The rise of alcohol consumption on campus is of concern to several prominent members of the LSE community: “the School does not wish to be seen as a ‘kill-joy’: but we would like to endorse any message from the student community that raises awareness of the risks associated with excessive alcohol consumption,” said Stockdale.

Most students are concerned with the extent to which the School may intervene in their social lives.

Alex Haigh, a second year BSc Environmental Policy with Economics student, said, “it’s important to make sure that a safe environment is maintained on campus, but I do not think that it is necessarily the School’s place to interfere. Drinking is a large part of any student’s life and most everyone I know does so responsibly.”

Matt Worby, a second year BSc Government student, said, “I’m really looking forward to beer being cheaper than it currently is. I certainly will be very loyal.”