PADA fosters dialogue on club alcohol policies

Eating club representatives attended the Princeton Alcohol and Drug Alliance's monthly meeting last Thursday in the continuation of a cooperative effort between Prospect Avenue and the Princeton community.

PADA — which is a substance abuse program for users that frequently serves an adviser on alcohol and drug issues to the Princeton Borough Council and the Princeton Township Committee — organized a discussion that included club presidents, University health officials and Borough Police Chief Charles Davall.

"My goal in the meeting was to have the eating club presidents and their [Inter-Club Council] adviser make a presentation about life in the eating clubs," said Gary DeBlasio, executive director of PADA, "and also to have a discussion where people can answer questions."

Representatives from the 'Street' included two club presidents, ICC president Dan Hantman '03 and ICC adviser Tim Szostek '02. In addition, PADA holds two seats for University student representatives, only one of which is now occupied by Joe Robinson '04.

In addition to addressing concerns about club security — particularly admittance of underage town residents — Szostek said they sought to give a well-rounded picture of club life.

"It seems like the town has only ever had negative exposure to the clubs," he said. "We gave a presentation . . . on what it's like to be in a club, why Princeton students join clubs, the fact that we don't just join them to get roaring drunk on a Saturday night."

Included in the presentation, Szostek said, were the community service projects clubs participate in, such as canned food drives, Habitat for Humanity trips and charity auctions. Some clubs also hold lecture series and Sustained Dialogue discussions on race, he added.

The Borough Council has asked PADA for recommendations about the much talked about alcohol ordinance, which would permit Borough Police to enter private residences on probable cause and arrest underage drinkers.

For now, however, PADA is still in the fact-gathering stage of investigating the issue, DeBlasio said.

"Right now we see our role as facilitating this discussion in the community among all its parts — the University, students, community members, the Township and Borough to discuss looking at all the options," DeBlasio said.

When PADA was initially asked for advice two years ago, the group declined to do so, affirming its primary function is counselling, not advising.

Club officials noted PADA's attitude that alcohol issues are no single group's responsibility, Hantman said.

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"We appreciated suggestions from them in looking at what we can do together in the future," he said. "Their attitude is that this is a mutual problem — not any one institution's problem."

PADA's discussion of the issue will continue next month, and the ordinance is slated to return to the Borough Council soon.

Though the ordinance is not off the table, the communication between clubs and the community has increased, Szostek said.

"There seems to be a great level of cooperation right now, and I hope that continues," he said. "It's much easier than this adversarial relationship that seems to have proliferated in the past few years."

On a related note, the Princeton Regional Health Commission said Oct. 15 that its involvement in community and University alcohol decisions should pertain only to education and not to police enforcement or violation of University policies, Princeton Health Officer William Hinshillwood said.