GICC focuses on risk reduction in face of pressure against underage drinking

With Borough officials increasingly targeting the eating clubs in an effort to reduce underage drinking at the University, the Graduate Inter-Club Council is focusing on ways to reduce the risk of students becoming dangerously intoxicated and ways to avoid legal entanglements.

The GICC — comprising trustees from each of the 11 clubs' graduate boards — is just another player, along with Borough Police, the Borough Council, the undergraduate ICC and the University, in the ongoing process of regulating alcohol consumption on Prospect Avenue.

The GICC, which is by far the least public of those bodies, has actively discussed several risk reduction options during the past year and has even considered measures as extreme as banning freshmen from the 'Street,' according to the minutes of the May 9 GICC meeting obtained by the 'Prince.'

Club officials emphasized last week that the GICC is no longer considering a freshman ban, and is now discussing other alternatives.

"The [GICC's] major emphasis is on the statement of principles and the wristbands," said Dr. David A. Willard '60, the GICC chair.

Each year club officers review the ICC's principles. Those standards include limiting clubs to members and their guests, only serving eligible members and not serving anyone who is drunk.

Last spring the clubs introduced a wristband program to prevent minors from obtaining alcohol. Under the system, door security guards are supposed to checks ID's and distribute bands only to students older than 21.

However, Borough Mayor Marvin Reed, Borough Police Chief Charles Davall and several Borough council members all have questioned the effectiveness of the wristband policy.

"I think it's effective to a degree," Davall said yesterday, "but what it doesn't prevent is a person with a wristband getting a beer and going to another part of the club and giving the beer to someone who is underage."

He suggested that club officers patrol their clubs to ensure that no minors have alcohol and that no one is severely intoxicated.

Club officials said some clubs already do that and that undergraduate officers as well as the GICC are discussing other options, though they would not comment on what those options might be.

"We're constantly trying to think about how we can make this a safer place for the students," said ICC chair Cindy Drakeman '02. "We're examining a lot of different alternatives."

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Drakeman would not say which alternatives the GICC considered at its last meeting Oct. 4. What goes on at GICC meetings is private, she said.

In her May report to the GICC, Drakeman listed six alternative solutions: - Continue distributing wristbands to students older than 21 - Hold more members only nights - Require officers to complete a course on responsible serving of alcohol - Heighten clubs' images by using the University Alcohol Initiative to hire bigger-name acts - Create a counseling focus group to target alcoholism, sexual misconduct and eating disorders - Hire uniformed security guards Streetwide

None of these options have been discussed in detail at the May or October meetings, Willard said. Some clubs are considering reducing the number of passes given to members, he added.

The GICC spent the majority of the May meeting discussing the potential freshmen ban.

"Last fall there were several freshmen taken to the emergency room," Willard said. "The police suggested that since the freshmen are all ineligible to drink, we should pay special attention to them."

Drakeman presented several points against a freshman ban in her report. She explained that enforcement would be difficult because many upperclassmen have friends who are freshmen.

In addition, a ban could have an adverse effect by increasing risk rather than reducing it, Drakeman said in the report. The ban could encourage vandalism, push underage drinking onto campus and increase sexual misconduct, according to the report.

After the discussion last May, Willard asked for an informal vote by graduate members. Campus and Terrace clubs voted for the ban, while Cap & Gown, Cottage and Ivy clubs each said they would support it if three Bicker clubs also supported it. Charter Club agreed to support it with three sign-in clubs.

Cloister Inn and Colonial and Quadrangle clubs voted against the measure and Tiger Inn and Tower Club were not represented during the vote.

The undergraduate ICC unanimously opposed the idea of forbidding freshmen from entering eating clubs.

"The reason that the alums were so in favor of it is because when most of them were here it was a campus rule that freshmen weren't allowed on the 'Street,' " Drakeman said. "It's a dead issue. It's not something people should be concerned about."

The GICC serves only an advisory role for the 'Street.' Individual graduate boards are legally responsible for the clubs. The boards control the financial endowments and can change policy to address liabilities.

Club presidents meet frequently to compare notes about issues affecting the 'Street,' but the GICC only meets three times a year. Unless there is cause to call an emergency meeting, such as the passage of a new alcohol ordinance, the next GICC meeting will be in February, after Bicker and sign-ins.