Response: Clubs already actively working on student safety

As President of Quad and President of the Inter-Club Council (ICC), I would like to respond to the opinion piece printed on Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2005, with my own personal views. These views are my own, and do not represent the Street as a whole.

First, I want to thank the writers of the editorial for being concerned with the safety of the Street. I am also deeply committed to this issue.

This editorial gave constructive advice on policies that the clubs should implement during their parties. The editorial failed to note that many of these policies are already in place at every club. Every club has dedicated officers prowling its premises attempting to prevent dangerous situations. Club memberes recognize their officers and know who is in charge. Because members make up a large percentage of those present during parties, it is unlikely that a problem would arise without a member being aware and then notifying an officer in charge. Furthermore, every single club employs professional bouncers (sometimes as many as eight to 10) to ensure that only students with PUIDs are being admitted. In fact, the clubs have lead the charge to make this process even safer. The clubs have proposed a change in PUIDs of the children of University faculty. The differences between student and dependent children IDs are negligible and this creates an opportunity for said youths to impersonate a college student and gain entrance into a club. Since February, the University has agreed to change these to similar IDs. However this has yet to happen.

Moreover, this policy, and others, have been agreed upon by not only the presidents of every club but also by the Borough Council and the University. Recently, the University, the ICC and the GICC (Grad Board ICC) have worked closely together to adopt a set of "best practices" among the clubs to increase the institutional memory about what works best to keep students safe.

The clubs even have additional security measures in place, such as club safety committees. A group of members and officers, all of whom are First Aid certified and many of whom are TIPS certified, seeks to keep the eating club environment as safe as possible for everyone.

The editorial also failed to point out that a great deal of excess and dangerous drinking happens in dorm rooms prior to entrance into clubs. After "pregaming," students visit eating clubs, and because they don't look dangerously intoxicated, are admitted by bouncers. However, since most pregaming is done with hard alcohol the symptoms of drunkenness reveal themselves, in most cases, only after students are allowed to enter in the club. Thus, students who are not even served alcohol on the Street become a problem for individual clubs due to their own actions within their rooms. Furthermore, this editorial piece distinctly lacked any mention of the fact that drinking is a personal choice. We are all adults and as such we need to be responsible for our own actions and our own alcohol intake. Each club provides non-alcohol alternatives (another example of the clubs' agreements with the Borough) available to all students. I believe that the University itself needs to look more into the affects of pregaming and seek to reduce its occurrence and affects.

In many cases the clubs are the scapegoats in numerous alcohol-related occurrences. I find it unprofessional for the editorial section of the Prince to promote and advance "allegations" that were made by a 17-year-old individual in the WaWa about a mile away from any club. The student, likely cognizant of many negative representations of eating clubs, could have used them as an alibi to divert blame from those truly at fault.

I do appreciate that there is general concern about the safety of students at the Street; however, many of the suggested policies are already in place and have been working for the clubs. Nothing is perfect, and the clubs don't pretend to be. But the clubs and the ICC are very concerned with the students that enter their facilities, and thus we do everything we can to promote a safe environment for everyone. Jamal Motlagh is the President of Quadrangle Club and President of the Inter-Club Council. He can be reached at jmotlagh@princeton.edu.