Council commends club efforts

Representatives from the eating clubs defended steps they have taken to reduce alcohol abuse on campus and emphasized the University's responsibility to address room parties at a Borough Council meeting this week.

"I would like to see the University move towards actually making changes for the lifestyle of students," Inter-Club Council (ICC) president Marco Fossati-Bellani '07 said to council members on Tuesday. "The sense of responsibility and the sense of consequence for breaking the law just doesn't exist."

"We, as the eating clubs, have been taking on that burden of being responsible, or at least doing our best to be responsible, and we're taking a lot of the burden away from the residential colleges and room parties and we feel that that should be shared among ourselves and the University," he added.

Remarks by council members at the meeting seemed to demonstrate a shift from past attitudes about drinking on campus — and an apparent public relations coup for the clubs. They and others from the community appeared to credit the clubs with doing much to combat alcohol abuse on campus, while suggesting that the University has not done enough.

And while the Borough has previously flirted with the idea of an alcohol ordinance, which would empower local police to issue citations for underage drinking on private property, the debate Tuesday focused less on enforcement and more on prevention.

"I do think that there has been a change in the culture," councilwoman Margaret Karcher said. "The very fact that you are all here tonight to speak to us is a change, and I think that there are a number of changes yet to come. Every time that you come, I hear more and more that is promising to me."

Councilwoman Wendy Benchley agreed. "I see huge progress with the eating clubs," she said.

Nine of the 10 eating club presidents, joined by ICC adviser Brian McKenna '04 and club graduate board members, attended the meeting. The president of Terrace Club did not attend.

Gary Deblasio, director of Corner House, a local nonprofit alcohol-abuse counseling agency, also commended the clubs, saying that they have "remained vigilant" in their cooperation with his organization.

"They have developed policies and procedures that on paper look good and sound great," he said. "Although there have been some violations of these procedures, the students have remained at the table."

"It is time to look beyond the clubs as the sole owner of this behavior. This is the University's and the Princeton community's concern," he added, saying that the University's response to drinking and drug use on campus "clearly needs more effort and should be reviewed more closely."

University administrators, while defending their efforts to combat the perceived alcohol-abuse problem on campus, acknowledged they do not expect revolutionary results.

"Although underage drinking certainly is a concern, I'd have to say our primary concern is the health and safety of our students," Vice President for Campus Life Janet Dickerson said. "We count on the small victories because we know that we can't make major changes in young students' lives."

Dickerson pointed to the online course AlcoholEdu, residential college adviser training, parents' weekend, nonalcoholic options provided by the Trustees' Alcohol Initiative, plans to make Campus Club an alternative social venue, the creation of the campus pub and CPR training for club officers as examples of the University's attempt to address this issue.

Councilman David Goldfarb, who has been highly critical in the past of alcohol abuse at the University, posed the issue of an ordinance after expressing concern that none of the University witnesses had been sworn in to testify under oath.

Director of Public Safety Steven Healy said he would have to know how similar policies in other municipalities had influenced alcohol use before deciding whether he thought an ordinance would be a constructive development.

Borough Police chief Anthony Federico said, "It may be appropriate for the clubs to have club licenses that would be regulated by the Borough and would enable the club to be open to inspection."

Councilman Roger Martindell, however, noted that if the clubs stopped serving alcohol, "then this will take place back at the dorm rooms, so the incidents of problems might increase."

Multiple hands shot up when Martindell asked about the merits of closing the clubs, as eating club officers and members rushed to respond.

Sam Bliss '06 made it to the microphone first. "If we got shut down, it's also going to spill out on Nassau Street, and people are going to drive and right now you don't have much of a drunken driving problem with students and that may have something to do with just how close the clubs are to campus," he said.

McKenna, the ICC adviser and former Cloister Inn president, then explained a conversation club officers had when he was president of Cloister about shutting down the Street for a weekend.

"We talked about it for a long time, and ultimately we decided that it would be irresponsible of us, because if we encouraged people to drink on campus for this one weekend, we were legitimately afraid that someone would die on campus and as a group we thought that we couldn't have that on our shoulders," he said.

The discussion ended with council members recognizing efforts the clubs have made recently and proposing "interim reports" for future years.

Fossati-Bellani wrote in an email after the meeting that he was pleased the council recognized eating club efforts to address the problem but would like to see the University take responsibility for the drinking problem that originates on campus.

"The fact of the matter is there is a lack of sense of responsibility on campus in terms of the potential results of heavy drinking," Fossati-Bellani said. "These people then make the eating clubs their destinations for the night, and the eating clubs end up being the location from which the transports [are made] to medical facilities."

"The result is that the eating clubs take the blame for much of the campus-based drinking. And rather than continuing to allow an issue that stems from campus to reflect poorly on the eating clubs, I would hope to see the University take a stand," he added.

McKenna struck a slightly different note, though he too has emphasized the dangers of heavy drinking on campus.

"I think the University does an incredible job of working with the clubs in ways that they can improve themselves," he said in an interview after the meeting. "It would be good for all parties involved, especially the University, to look at how they can stop people from drinking at their own establishment. I would have liked to see more attention brought to that."

Related

— Councilman calls for increased prosecution of sexual assaults (May 6, 2006) — Club fined for serving alcohol to minor (May 4, 2006) — A reformed Tiger Inn opens its doors again (April 13, 2006) — Terrace closes its doors to non-members (April 7, 2006) — Panel reacts to reports of alcohol abuse, sexual assault (April 6, 2006) — What happened at pick-ups? (April 5, 2006) — Cottage leader resigns his post (March 9, 2006) — Police investigate 'sexual incident' at Tiger Inn (Feb. 27, 2006) — Assault charges dropped (Feb. 13, 2006) — Sophomore charged with sexual assault (Dec. 7, 2005) — Student arrested for sex crime at TI (Nov. 22, 2005)