Clubs agree to offer dry alternatives

Under a new initiative approved by President Tilghman in February and signed by the eating club presidents on Thursday afternoon, the University will offer each of the 11 clubs about $2000 per semester to hold a party without alcohol on a Thursday or Saturday night.

The agreement, known as the Prospect Initiative, translates to in between $30,000 and $60,000 annually in new anti-alcohol funding and will provide a party without alcohol each Thursday or Saturday night, to be hosted by the clubs on a rotating basis. The measure will be implemented in clubs starting this fall.

Former Inter-Club Council President Corey Sanders '04 spearheaded the proposal, which is aimed at providing nonalcoholic alternatives on Prospect Avenue.

"It comes back to the social pressure, that there's one location on the Street every week where you don't have to drink," he said. "That takes away pressure from the whole Street."

In early February, Sanders brought the proposal to Vice President for Campus Life Janet Dickerson, who took it to Tilghman the next day. Tilghman was receptive but stressed the importance of garnering support from all of the club presidents, Dickerson said.

Dickerson explained that her own support grew out of talking to students who are interested "in having a dry club or having activities that appeal to people who don't choose to drink or don't want to be in an environment where there's alcohol, but don't want to miss out on elemental aspects of social life at Princeton."

She hopes the weekly events will let those students "have relationships with their friends who are on the Street and to encourage a more inclusive social life, rather than having a lot of divisiveness and different factions and a sense of exclusiveness."

After obtaining University approval, Sanders presented the initiative at the Feb. 12 meeting of the Graduate Inter-Club Council, a meeting of eating club presidents and the leadership of each club's graduate board.

By Thursday, all 11 clubs had signed on.

In an email to Sanders, Tilghman said she was "delighted" to hear of the clubs' unanimous support.

ICC president J.W. Victor '05 said he hopes the initiative will change the way the Street is viewed.

"Sometimes we get stereotyped as these institutions where kids just drink," Victor said. "We are so much more than that; we can have fun without the alcohol and this is a step in the right direction."

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The Prospect Initiative will also allow clubs to circumvent the process of applying for funding through the Alcohol Initiative, which will continue to fund alcohol-free events outside the Street.

"Quad has many times in the past applied for Alcohol Initiative funding and received it and been thankful, but the process is complex and difficult for eating clubs to do," said Victor, who is also the president of Quad.

Assistant Dean Maria Flores-Mills of the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students will serve as the University liaison to the Prospect Initiative, working closely with the club presidents to coordinate the events.

And while the University will be involved in the planning stages, the clubs will largely retain the creative rights to the parties.

The funding should provide "a lot of freedom about what type of event to have," Sanders said. "Hopefully each club will come up with its own creative ideas."

Acknowledging that some of the students at the alcohol-free event may be coming from or heading to other parties with alcohol, Sanders said, "As long as they're not drinking at that moment, it's somewhat successful."