Responsible Hospitality

Establishing Responsible Hospitality (RH) policies on campus and in the surrounding community can help reduce high-risk and illegal drinking. Campus administrators and local bar and tavern owners can employ many RH strategies to ensure underage or intoxicated people are not being served alcohol at on- or off-campus venues. Comprehensive Responsible Hospitality programs for servers and managers can:

• Prevent illegal alcohol service to minors
• Reduce the likelihood of drinkers becoming intoxicated
• Prevent those who are impaired from harming themselves or others

Responsible Hospitality management policies can be developed and implemented to train servers. Training should be continuous for both new and veteran servers, and managers should limit alcohol serving to servers who have undergone the training.

Campus and community teams can strive to promote and ensure RH through working with coalitions representing the hospitality industry and the prevention field. These coalitions can exercise their power to support RH practices by:

• Working with restaurant and bar owners to encourage the establishment of Responsible Server Training programs, and providing incentives such as license retention, legal liability, and an enhanced reputation
• Working to establish state laws requiring Responsible Hospitality training for servers
• Working with campus and local law enforcement to enforce laws regarding the sale of alcohol to underage and intoxicated individuals consistently and strictly, keeping the legal burden on establishment owners

In addition to establishing and supporting RH programs, campus and community officials should disseminate social host guidelines to those planning parties. The guidelines should provide information about applicable laws and policies, and provide guidance how to on plan safe and responsible parties.