Tubestock, a longstanding Dartmouth College tradition of tipsy tubing down the Connecticut River, is likely to be cancelled this year.
Fraternities and sororities at the Hanover, N.H., college build rafts of all sizes and sell inner tubes in preparation for the July event, which is notorious for students' alcohol use. Students and rafts are bussed to the river on a Saturday, where they spend the day.
"It's basically a bunch of kids in tubes on the Connecticut River with alcohol," said Adam Levine, Dartmouth's sophomore class treasurer.
Tubestock, which attracts about 1,000 students on campus for Dartmouth's mandatory sophomore summer term, is not officially sanctioned by any entity, including the college, though it is typically organized by the Greek Leadership Council. Because New Hampshire state law holds an organizational body and not participants responsible for congregation without permits, police have been unable to prosecute students for illegal activities during past Tubestocks, though they have always been "present on boats in the water and making sure everything is okay," said senior Taylor Cornwall, moderator of the GLC.
Following a student drowning in the river in August, which Cornwall said was "completely unrelated to Tubestock," Hanover officials have been looking at passing legislation to make it more difficult for students to hold Tubestock.
Hanover officials proposed changing the law to make it "illegal to participate in a non-permitted event on a state waterway," according to a document obtained by the Dartmouth Review, a student newspaper, and written by Julia Griffin, Hanover's town manager. This would allow for the arrest of students participating in Tubestock.
According to the document, Hanover is taking steps to abolish or "constrain" the event so it does not involve alcohol, rafts or "floating objects of any kind."
She also wrote that photography and videotaping might be used to record the event, and officials would subsequently "seek Dartmouth's assistance in identifying all of the participants, rather than attempting to prevent entry into the river for the event itself."
Under the new legislation, the organizing group would also need an expensive insurance policy in order to obtain a permit, which would have to cover Hanover and Norwich, N.H., two towns through which the Connecticut river flows, as well as the state of New Hampshire and Dartmouth. Such a policy would cost about $2 million because of the unsafe nature of Tubestock, the Dartmouth student paper estimated.
The GLC, meanwhile, which usually plans the event, is looking to modify the event to keep it running. Ideas included changing the name of the event in order to appeal to insurance companies, making lifejackets mandatory, banning rafts or making the event alcohol-free by requiring students to clear checkpoints before entering the river.
The council is also looking to Dartmouth to sanction the event and purchase insurance.
"The main thing is, the outside sources (for insurance) are very expensive and we don't know if we have the resources," Cornwall said, adding that college administrators are likely the only option for assistance.
Susan Knapp, public affairs specialist at Dartmouth, said she does not know at this time if Dartmouth will sponsor the event.
Students, meanwhile, are not pleased with the possible cancellation of their beloved Tubestock.
"There seems to have been a pretty visceral reaction to (the possible cancellation of Tubestock). It's like a rite of passage," Levine said.
"There are underground groups starting called 'Save Tubestock' and there is going to be a forum to inform students better about the actual behind-the-scenes processes and to teach them how to compromise with the administration," he said.
Still, Cornwall seems optimistic about Tubestock's future.
"I'm hopeful of it happening in some form. A lot of it is going to be dependent on how determined students are," he said. "The question now is whether students are willing to have Tubestock in an altered form."
