Tower president charged, resigns

A member of Tower Club was charged Friday with making alcohol available to a minor and maintaining a nuisance, Princeton Borough Police said without releasing the name of the member charged. In an email to club members, Tower Club president Cullen Newton '04 said he was the person facing charges.

Borough Police Lt. Dennis McManimon said yesterday he would not release the name of the member charged because he could not confirm whether the student had received notification of the charges by postal mail.

Newton could not be reached for comment. In his email, Newton resigned as president of the club and announced that the club's vice president, Matt Nickoloff '04, would assume his position.

Last week the same charges were filed against Cap and Gown Club president Elizabeth Biney-Amissah '04 for a separate incident. Tonight, the Princeton Borough Council will meet to review the status of underage drinking in the community.

McManimon said the most recent charges cite an Oct. 24 incident, when an unconscious and underage female student was transported from Prospect Avenue to the University Medical Center at Princeton by University proctors. The student told police she had been drinking at Tower.

McManimon dismissed suspicions that the police purposefully waited to file the charges until just before the Borough meeting.

"Don't read into it," McManimon said. "We're not that sinister. It would be disingenuous to do that."

McManimon attributed the lapse of time between the incident and the filing of the charges to a number of other investigations that took priority over those regarding the eating clubs.

Mayor-elect Joseph O'Neill and Councilman David Goldfarb both said they do not believe the recent charges will affect the course of tonight's meeting.

"I don't know that the charge itself would have an effect because we've been aware of the incidents that have been taking place throughout the fall, which lead me to believe that the commitments agreed to by the clubs in the spring have not been honored," Goldfarb said.

In late March, Colonial Club, Quadrangle Club and Cap reached an agreement with the police in which the three clubs would enforce more strict controls on underage drinking in return for a temporary suspension of charges pending against the clubs' presidents.

Other informal agreements have been made between eating clubs and the Borough over the years.

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"I think the clubs and the University and pretty much everyone involved have made an effort and shown concern regarding the consumption of alcohol on campus," Inter-club Council president Corey Sanders '04 said. "We've not fully achieved perfection, but a lot of wonderful efforts have been attempted both University-side and Street-side."

The meeting tonight will review steps taken by the eating clubs and the University to deter underage and excessive drinking.

O'Neill said he had expected the new policies to reduce the number of alcohol-related incidents, but he said the number of those incidents has increased since last year.

O'Neill also expressed concern that those clubs "that were doing fairly well last year are the ones that are having problems this year."

"I'm worried about the widespread incidence of being intoxicated to the point of being comatose, and it seems to me that the University is not taking a firm hand, and its own students are in danger of death," O'Neill said.

"If you're not worried, then you're part of the problem," he said.