Swarthmore College’s latest Fire Safety Report counted a striking increase in alcohol referrals from the prior year. In 2024, there were 214 reported liquor law violations on campus — roughly a 432% increase from 40 violations in 2023. The jump stands out compared to the past five years of reports, during which the average number of violations sat at around 50 per year.
According to Associate Director of Public Safety John Bera, the spike was largely driven by a “small number of incidents involving large groups of students.” In email correspondence with The Phoenix, Bera said the 214 violations stemmed from just 31 separate incidents.
Bera said the majority of referrals, 173, resulted from Public Safety responding to calls or complaints. The remaining 41 were from five incidents that “Public Safety personnel proactively identified.”
In email correspondence with The Phoenix, Senior Associate Dean of Student Conduct Nate Miller acknowledged the increase in referrals, but added that similar spikes have “happened from time to time during my time at the college.”
Miller said that there has been no change in how Student Affairs has enforced the college’s alcohol policy.
He noted that the report counts any student who was alleged to have violated the Code of Conduct, whether they were ultimately found to have or not. This also includes calls made under the college’s medical amnesty policy, which protects students needing emergency medical help for alcohol or drug use from disciplinary action.
In these cases, students are referred to Associate Director of Student Wellness Josh Ellow. In an interview with The Phoenix, he said he does not think that the increase in referrals reflects increased alcohol use. Rather, similar to Miller, he saw the jump as part of a “natural ebb and flow” in the data. Ellow has been an alcohol and drug counselor at the college since 2013.
“I don’t think these numbers mean that we have more students partying or being reckless,” he said. “In fact, I know it doesn’t, because we have more students saying they’re abstainers.”
He referred to data from a survey that incoming students take upon arriving on campus from AlcoholEDU, an online prevention program for alcohol misuse in college. According to 2025 data he shared, 67% of incoming first years identified as abstainers.
“This reflects a growing number of young adults who are coming to college and choosing not to drink,” Ellow wrote in an email to The Phoenix. However, he said that the number of abstainers typically goes down a bit over time as students become more open to new social experiences, as reflected in surveys students take throughout college, like the National College Health Assessment (NCHA).
He reported that the latest data set from 2025 reflected a “statistically significant difference” in first-year drinking versus fourth-year drinking:
“It’s called the college effect.”
Based on data from the NCHA, Ellow thinks that many students are “trying to be responsible” about drinking. According to the 2025 data set, 56% of students didn’t intend to get drunk the last time they drank. Of those who drank, 77% consumed fewer than four drinks, and 87% drank within a four-hour window or less.
“These are students who are approaching [drinking] with the harm-reduction approach in mind,” he said.
Ellow also highlighted that, on average, less than 1% of students reported that alcohol use negatively impacts their academics. “Which I think is pretty amazing,” he added.
He speculated that the increase in alcohol referrals is due to large gatherings that were shut down, rather than unregistered gatherings or noise complaints.
“Even if there happens to be twenty people on a report, there’s a chance that all of them, or maybe nineteen or fifteen, are consuming sort of responsibly … and these other things lead to them getting in a conduct spotlight.”
Ellow added that some semesters and incoming classes might look different from others, possibly leading to more encounters with Public Safety. He noted that it seems like there are more students, compared to pre-COVID, “who are involved in a situation and then referred.”
Anecdotally, he also said that he does hear about people calling PubSafe because of loud music at parties, rather than asking students directly to turn music down, which could ultimately lead to further alcohol referrals.
“I think that as an institution, the more we can do to just offer support for however somebody approaches substances … Whether that’s clinically and somebody’s in recovery, or it’s abstinence-based, or if they’re harm reduction-based, or if they’re experimenting, we should support them.”
Ellow spoke to the drinking culture at Swarthmore and the practice of having events be “alcohol registered” in order to be compliant with the Code of Conduct. “We’re a unique institution, and it’s a unique approach to have.”
Miller highlighted that earlier this semester, the Division of Student Affairs partnered with the Student Government Organization to update the minimum attendance requirement for alcohol registered events (ARE) from ten to twenty people. Further, ARE spaces have expanded to include upperclassmen housing, like NPPR and Crum Ledge.
“This change was in direct response to student feedback related to Alcohol Registered Events,” Miller wrote.
