The University has revised some of its policies regarding enforcing alcohol laws on campus, expanding the reach of Public Safety officers and residential college advisers (RCAs) in dormitories.
Public Safety officers began implementing one of the new policies just before Fall Break by patrolling dorm hallways on weekend nights in search of unruly parties. Beginning next fall, RCAs will be expected to discourage and report alcohol consumption by their underage advisees and to break up parties on their hallways. The University told RCAs of these new rules earlier this week, giving them documents, a copy of which The Daily Princetonian has obtained.
Coming on the heels of the alcohol poisoning death of a Rider University freshman in March and ever-greater wariness about underage drinking on the Street, the new policies suggest that the University is angling to crack down on underage drinking with stricter rules and practices than ever before.
The University compared its enforcement regulations for RCAs to those of residential advisers at other colleges "because alcohol is a huge concern, and we're all so afraid that we'll have a student death as a result of dangerous drinking," Associate Dean of Undergraduate Students Hillary Herbold said.
A yearlong data-gathering process found that advisers at the University were expected to do far less to curb underage drinking than their counterparts on many other campuses.
"The data ranged from schools where RAs ... are involved in filing reports on students to systems which are more like the way ours has been, which define advisers more exclusively as confidantes and mentors and less as enforcers of policy," Herbold said.
"Princeton was definitely on the end of the spectrum that involved less clarity, less specificity, less intervention and less enforcement."
Peer enforcement
Residential college administrators briefed RCAs this week on the new policy, which one document calls the "Policy on the Adviser's Role and Responsibilities with Respect to Alcohol and Alcohol-related Issues."
The new policy will take effect next September and is expected to be announced tomorrow. Unlike the current regulations of the same name, it mandates that "when an adviser encounters a significant violation of University Rules and Regulations, he or she must take action to stop of the violation."
The policy further specifies the following as examples of "significant" violations: parties at which alcohol is made available to underage persons, students of any age participating in "pre-gaming" (defined by Herbold as "the consumption of a large quantity of alcohol over a relatively short period of time") or drinking games, and any form of alcohol-related hazing or initiation activities.
The Council of Masters adopted the current policy in April 2003. It gives RCAs significant leeway in determining what kinds of situations to address and in what fashion. It outlined general rules forbidding RCAs from providing alcohol or drugs to their advisees and requires RCAs to "confront inappropriate behavior and intervene immediately in situations where the safety of students is, or will be, in jeopardy." But it did not explicitly require RCAs to shut down parties involving underage drinking.
Under the new policy, RCAs are required to investigate further if they hear "credible rumors or discussion suggesting that students are planning a party or other activity in which the alcohol policy will be violated," or observe students "bringing alcohol to a room in quantities that indicate an intent to serve a group of people beyond those who live in the room (e.g., a keg, hard alcohol, more than two six-packs of beer)," or see any "signs that students are playing a drinking game or doing shots of hard alcohol, or planning to do either of these things."
The policy does not explain why two six-packs is considered a threshold, nor why possession of hard alcohol implies the intent to serve anyone other than oneself. Herbold said these examples are "ways of drawing a line that has to be drawn somewhere ... we had to make a decision about what appears to be too much alcohol for personal consumption."
Nonetheless, Herbold said, "it is not a violation even for underage drinkers to have alcohol in their rooms for their own consumption."
The four-and-a-half page document on the new policy also contains a list of scenarios detailing "how the University would expect residential college advisers to respond to situations involving alcohol or drugs." RCAs are required to actively work to shut down a party where alcohol is being served, which might lead to their contacting Public Safety.
"I think [the new policy] will cause ... a 'chilling' in the relationships between RCAs and advisees who will be suspect of these 'big brothers and sisters' enforcing the alcohol policy," Francisco Nava '09, a Butler College assistant RCA, said in an email.
He added that "many of my colleagues felt uncomfortable with the fact that none of the Butler RCAs were consulted about the changes."
Herbold acknowledged that there might be such concerns among RCAs but said that she believed those concerns were counterbalanced by the advisers' appreciation for the clarity provided by the policy.
"Any time you ask advisers to intervene more, there's going to be a natural concern about how that will cause my advisee to feel about [the RCA]" she said. "But I think the advisers understand that their role is necessarily sometimes to ... make judgments about safety when other students aren't necessarily doing that."
Though the new policy will not go into effect until the 2008-09 academic year, administrators have timed its release to coincide with the application for RCA positions for next year, which will be released tomorrow.
"It was thought that we owed it to the advisers to tell them what they were signing on for," Herbold said. "We wanted to be clear about what that would mean for those applying."
The policy was drafted by Herbold, Dean of Undergraduate Students Kathleen Deignan and the residential college masters with input from some of the directors of student life.
The drafting process did not involve any student input.
Dormitory patrols
While the stricter expectations for RCAs do not take effect for almost a year, a second policy change is already in place.
As of "about two weeks ago," a pair of Public Safety officers has been patrolling all undergraduate dormitories Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights between the hours of 10 p.m. and 2 a.m., Public Safety Deputy Director Charles Davall said.
The two-officer patrol is also responsible for responding to any calls or complaints from students during those hours.
"The patrols go to dormitories and walk through the halls ... looking for Rights, Rules and Responsibilities violations, especially alcohol violations," Davall said, adding that the officers also engage in "positive dialogue with the students."
A standard response to an alcohol-related violation is for the Public Safety officer to write a report detailing the violation, issue a citation to the offending student and refer the matter to the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students.
Davall added that the patrols have not been underway long enough for anyone to know if they have resulted in an increased volume of citations for alcohol or drug violations.
He called the patrols "a piece [of the solution], but certainly not an entire solution" to alcohol violations on campus. Both Davall and Herbold said that there is currently no plan to devote more manpower to these patrols.
"It's a big campus, and it's hard to cover with only two officers," Davall said. "We're doing the best we can with our existing resources."
Why now?
The new Public Safety patrol policy and the introduction of the new RCA policy come less than a year after a drinking death at nearby Rider University.
"I'm sure the recent tragedy at Rider had something to do with [the Public Safety patrols]," Davall said.
Herbold pointed out that the data-gathering process which led to the development of the policy began last spring, before the Rider death, but said she thought that what happened at Rider "heightened the sense of urgency to come out with a new policy."
"We said to ourselves, 'Do we want to be a school that makes these changes in response to a tragedy, or do we want to act now?' " Herbold said.
The new RCA policy was developed in consultation with the University Counsel's office, which told the administration that the new policy would not change the status of the RCAs' personal or criminal liability, Herbold said.
Sheldon Steinbach, former general counsel to the American Council of Education, praised the University's actions. "They're dealing with reality. Princeton as an institution is stepping forward to clarify a situation that has been murky for decades," he said, adding that little case law exists on the role of dorm advisers at American colleges and universities and that clarifying their role is a positive step.
RCAs act as agents of the University, and "their actions are taken in an official capacity [as] actions of the University," Steinbach said.
As agents, RCAs are protected from liability by the University. "New Jersey happens to have a charitable immunity law, [which] immunizes the University and individuals who are in an agency status so long as they were not grossly negligent," University general counsel Peter McDonough said.
"[This] allows us to focus on optimal safety issues, optimal attentiveness to our students and not being unduly driven by concerns of civil liability," McDonough said, explaining that the University is more concerned about the safety of its students than it is about protecting itself from legal action.
"It allows us to ask, 'What should we do?' and 'What's best for our students?' "
Read More
Reunions, Commencement see isolated demonstrations as U. tightens protest warnings
Calvin Kenjiro Grover and Luke GrippoAt this year’s Reunions and Commencement, the University sought to get ahead of any potential demonstrations by exhaustively emphasizing its policies around protests and interruptions, including that those who disrupted an event could face arrest. However, there were only a few Pro-Palestine protest actions, all of them sparsely attended.
At this year’s Reunions and Commencement, the University sought to get ahead of any potential demonstrations by exhaustively emphasizing its policies around protests and interruptions, including that those who disrupted an event could face arrest. However, there were only a few Pro-Palestine protest actions, all of them sparsely attended.
Princeton awards 1,293 degrees to the Class of 2025 as speakers reference political headwinds
Maya MukherjeeReunions and graduation speakers referenced the tense political climate around higher education, adding urgent undertones — and sometimes overtones — to otherwise standard ceremonial speech fare.
Reunions and graduation speakers referenced the tense political climate around higher education, adding urgent undertones — and sometimes overtones — to otherwise standard ceremonial speech fare.
Joseph ’25 next Young Alumni Trustee in 21 percent turnout election
Vitus LarrieuGil Joseph ’25 won the Young Alumni Trustee election, which saw 21 percent turnout. Joseph, Stephen Padlo ’25 and Ben Wachspress ’25 competed in the final round of elections after advancing from a notably large primary in April.
Gil Joseph ’25 won the Young Alumni Trustee election, which saw 21 percent turnout. Joseph, Stephen Padlo ’25 and Ben Wachspress ’25 competed in the final round of elections after advancing from a notably large primary in April.