Proctors' orders

Public Safety Crime Prevention Specialist Barry Weiser announced yesterday an ambitious plan to deploy Public Safety officers behind eating club taps during all hours when the clubs are distributing beer.

Weiser's announcement comes in the wake of Borough Police's first string of arrests made early yesterday morning in connection with its Operation: Take the Beast out of the 'Street' campaign.

At about 1:30 a.m., undercover Borough Police officers stormed Charter Club and cited 47 members for underage drinking.

"We had heard that Charter Club was the wildest club on the 'Street,' so it only made sense to start there," Borough Police Capt. Charles Davall said. "Now we're setting an example."

Police were able to gain entrance to the club after soon-to-be-president Lindsay Michelotti '02 invited several undercover officers in.

"I didn't know they were police. I just thought they were Rutgers students," she said afterward to a group of enraged Charter members. "That Chuck Davall is a hottie."

University administrators, upon learning of the first string of arrests, pledged to take immediate action to save other students from a similar fate.

Spokeswoman Marilyn Marks said the arrests cast the University in a negative light.

"We will not allow the Princeton name to be smeared by Borough Police," she said. "As a result, I and [University space-czar and puppetmaster] Alan Sinisgalli have decided to enlist the help of the University's most elite crime-fighting force to keep things under control."

"On a personal note, I feel that I have been burned by the actions of Borough Police," Marks added.

As part of the new "PUPS Got Hops" program, the University will hire additional officers to distribute beer and keep an eye out for any student or students attempting to acquire alcohol while they are still "underage," Weiser said.

"The eating club officers will have nothing to worry about," Weiser said. "We've got them covered like a jimmy hat."

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According to Weiser, each eating club will be assigned one officer who will distribute beer and alcoholic beverages during the course of the evening.

For the ceremonial kick-off of the new initiative, Weiser himself will be teaming up with long-time buddy David Fussell '01 to work the tap at Campus Club tonight.

"Dave and me — what a team," he said. "And if there are too many people, we are prepared to go chug-one-to-get-one."

Military historian and history professor Paul Miles noted yesterday that the program is an unorthodox use of Public Safety officers, which comprise what he described as a "spearhead force."

Weiser downplayed the departure from normal PUPS procedures.

"Admittedly, this is a police action outside our normal operational procedures," he said. "But it would be a mistake for any underage would-be drinker to doubt our resolve."

But Public Safety shift supervisor Lt. Lloyd Best expressed concern about the plan.

"Public Safety is a broadsword, not a scalpel," he said. "I don't like the idea of proctors in eating clubs. It will be noisy, it will be loud and it will not be mistaken for a VFW parade."

ICC president Daniel Hunter Winn '01 was unusually hesitant to comment about the announcement. "Anything I say here will get me into trouble," he whined.