Borough proceeds with alcohol restriction

The Princeton Borough Council's public safety committee moved forward with discussion of a new alcohol ordinance Friday. The committee voted to recommend introduction of the ordinance to the full council despite heated arguments by USG president Joe Kochan '02 and Inter-Club Council adviser Alice Teti '00.

The Borough Council can now decide whether to pass or reject the ordinance, which would allow police to cite underage drinkers on private property. Violations of the ordinance could carry penalties of $250 and $350 for first and second offenses, respectively.

The committee did not recommend that the council pass the ordinance but requested that Teti present the ICC's new wristband policy in writing to Borough officials. The Borough Council likely will discuss the ordinance in its April 10 meeting, according to Borough Mayor Marvin Reed.

Until nearly halfway through the meeting, the ordinance appeared to be cresting toward approval. When challenged that eating club presidents have been uncooperative in dealing with the situation, Teti explained the ICC's attempt to control underage drinking at the 'Street' with the institution of the wristband policy.

The new policy — in which safeguards check IDs at the door and issue wristbands to legal drinkers — took full effect this weekend. Though some eating clubs have used wristbands previously, most eating clubs now issue and monitor wristbands intensively, Teti said.

Teti tried to assuage committee members' concerns that legal drinkers could still serve underage friends easily. She explained that club officers and hired security personnel will be on duty around the clubs and in the taprooms to ensure that only students with wristbands possess alcohol. In addition, officers will take beer from students without wristbands and may even expel them from the club, she said.

Though some committee members still seemed skeptical, the committee decided to recommend the full council discuss the ordinance, with the condition that it consider the wristband policy. Borough administrator Bob Bruschi, councilwoman Peggy Karcher and committee chair Mildred Trotman voted in favor of recommending the ordinance while Reed abstained.

Mercer County Prosecutor Daniel Giaquinto attended the meeting to perforate criticisms of the ordinance and urge its passing.

Calling the inability of police to enforce underage drinking on private property a "glitch in the law," Giaquinto countered concerns about privacy, enforcement and the perception that the penalties are draconian.

"This is not going to give police permission to ride roughshod over the Fourth Amendment," he said, adding that fines attached to the ordinance are small compared to those for underage drinking in a public space.

Violators of the public spaces ordinance face fines of $500 and $1000 for first and second offenses, respectively, in addition to possible imprisonment and a mandatory loss of driver's license, Giaquinto said.

When representatives for the Princeton Human Services Com-mission urged that the Borough focus its efforts on counseling rather than punishment, Giaquinto replied, "People do not seek help unless they're forced to. They don't take the first steps until the law intercedes."

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Borough Police Chief Thomas Michaud backed the ordinance. He repeatedly called excessive drinking at the 'Street' a public safety issue.

"Many cases have spilled into the community," he said, citing an incident in which a student fell and cut his face and then wandered into a neighbor's backyard and banged on their door seeking help. "We're on the threshold of disaster," Michaud said.

Kochan, who was among a dozen student leaders to attend the meeting, said the ordinance would be "deleterious" to public safety.

"It's a hundred times more likely that someone will not seek medical attention but will be put to bed in a room where he can't get the help he needs, and that students will die," he said fervently. "You're going to make the problem worse. I guarantee you."

Director of Community and State Affairs Pam Hersh, who was the only University administrator at the meeting, agreed with Kochan's comments. "There is the fear that the law may have a chilling effect on getting student help," she said in an interview after the meeting.

Kochan's fears were echoed by former U-Council chair Teddy Nemeroff '01, U-Council member Ryan Salvatore '02, Terrace Club president Clay Whitehead '02 and GICC chair Michael Mathews '62. Mathews, who is also a Borough resident, added strength to the students' cries to raze hopes of an ordinance by calling such measures unnecessary and alleging that Borough police are targeting eating clubs.

Mathews called Borough police tactics of placing "undercover people in the eating clubs . . . irresponsible and irrational and Gestapo-like."

"I have a principle objection of profiling Prospect Street as the problem," he said.

Bruschi said club presidents and University officials have been unwilling to comply with the Borough's attempts to mitigate problems with underage drinking. He cited the inability of police to determine accountability for incidents occurring during the February initiations weekend, in which 15 students, four of whom were underage, were sent to McCosh Health Center and local hospitals.

The initiation weekend hospitalizations, though not unusually high compared to past years, spurred discussion of the ordinance by local leaders.

Mayor Reed echoed Bruschi's frustrations, questioning the ambiguity of University Public Safety's role in incidents at the 'Street.'

"There is a problem with University policy using its security officers as stretcher-bearers," he said. "It's creating a mixed signal that the security people are going to protect you from further investigation by the police."

University Public Safety Crime Prevention Specialist Barry Weiser said he was troubled by the mayor's accusations. "I don't know how to address that," he said. "We work with them as much as possible. If we're asked to transport an ill student, we're not going to say no. The first priority is to get them help."

Teti said she would prepare information about the wristband policy for the full council early next week after meeting with Kochan and Dean of Undergraduate Students Kathleen Deignan. She said she will meet April 9 with Kochan, Deignan, Hersh, Vice President for Student Life Janet Dickerson and Associate Dean of Undergraduate Students Sandra Silverman at Prospect House to discuss underage binge drinking on and off campus.

The ordinance could be on the council's agenda as early as April 10, Reed said. He said he hoped the council would have an open discussion with University officials and students before May 7, the first day of reading period.

Trotman said, however, that the process may not move as quickly as some local leaders hope and that a final decision may not be made for several months.

"There is a good possibility that this ordinance will not be put on the agenda until September," she said.