Few attend Q&A session about new alcohol rules

Administrators held an open forum yesterday afternoon to answer student questions about the changes to the University's alcohol enforcement policy that were announced last month.

Though USG president Rob Biederman '08 sent two emails to undergraduates encouraging them to attend, just three students went to the discussion, excluding student reporters and USG officers. Five residential college masters, Dean of Undergraduate Students Kathleen Deignan and Associate Dean of Undergraduate Students Hilary Herbold were there to answer questions, as were Biederman and vice president Josh Weinstein '09, the USG president-elect.

Weinstein expressed surprise at the sparse attendance, given how central the alcohol policy was during recent campaigning.

"When I was going door-to-door, the single most important issue was the alcohol policy," he said.

Deignan, on the other hand, cited the recently posted frequently asked questions as a possible explanation for the low student participation in the forum.

"I'm hopeful that it reflected the many clarifications that we've attempted to make since the policy came out," she said.

"I think it would be more beneficial if more students would be willing to engage directly with me and administrators," Biederman said, adding that he thinks "there is a difference between [being] so concerned that you show up at a meeting and firing off a few-sentence email."

Administrators said that the changes merely seek to encourage RCAs to be more proactive in addressing possibly dangerous situations.

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"We were saying, wait until something is dangerous and then stop it," Herbold said. "Now we are saying, be preemptive."

Students voiced concern over the nature of the intervention. The policy, for example, cites pre-gaming as a particular area of concern for RCAs.

"What we call pre-gaming is drinking a lot of alcohol in a short amount of time," Herbold said, though one student, Kent Kuran '08, pointed out that administrators may be confusing binge drinking and pre-gaming, and that not all drinking that takes place before a trip to the Street is dangerous.

Administrators stressed the need to address potentially life-threatening situations.

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"Someone hasn't died yet. But every year that I've been master, someone has either stopped breathing on their way to PMC or their heart has stopped," Wilson College Master Marguerite Browning said.

Student participants conveyed their worries that the RCA-advisee relationship would be harmed by the changes. But Mathey College Master Antoine Kahn said that only two of the 87 current RCAs objected to the changes.

The revisions to the policy do not seem to have decreased student interest in joining the advising system.

"I was struck by the number of applicants we got for RCAs next year," Kahn said, though he did not disclose the number.

"I look at our RCAs as being the 'first citizen' on the floor or entryway," Deignan said, adding that the University is not interested in having RCAs take on strict enforcement roles, as they do at other universities.

She added that the administration's first concern is student safety, not law enforcement.

"If I were queen of the forest, the drinking age would not be 21," Deignan said.

The policy, according to Deignan, is meant to be the first line of defense against dangerous drinking. If RCAs are more proactive, fewer students will be admitted to McCosh, Butler College Master Sanjeev Kulkarni said.

"We are not taking away the judgment of the RCAs," he added.

Administrators voiced concerns over the lack of student leadership in regard to responsible drinking.

"It is the fact that we have every year a number of students that concern us. Students consume alcohol at a level that is really dangerous," Deignan said. "The administration is pushed to step up because students don't seem to be willing themselves to own this problem."

The USG, however, is concerned that the administration did not ask students for input before announcing the alcohol policy.

"This is a discussion we could have had in the spring, when this policy was being discussed, instead of having these ad hoc discussions," Weinstein said.