Stephen Lumetta
News Editor
Alcohol and the College policies surrounding alcohol have been much discussed at the College this academic year, but Campus Council (CC) will not pass a new alcohol policy this year, according to Chair of Campus Council Ben Taylor ’16.
This means that the student body will be entering its first weekend next year without a new alcohol policy.
Revising and passing a new alcohol policy was a major focus for CC this year. CC released the draft of the alcohol policy to the campus community for comment on April 12. Since then, it has received dozens of comments through email, the Google Document and a separate document from Director of Residence Life Nathan Fein (who did not respond to a request for comment from the Voice).
CC’s last meeting occurred yesterday, after press time. According to Chair of CC Ben Taylor ’16, CC would most likely have to choose a chairperson for next year, transfer leadership to next year’s representatives, approve student organizations’ budget appeals and work on other committees’ business.
“As such, we’re not going to be able to get to much of the alcohol policy and the comments about it,” said Taylor.
Said Taylor on the dozens of comments CC has received, “Basically, that’s just a lot to try to work through. The only way that I think we would have gotten this policy passed prior to the end of the school year is if we had decided not to send it out to comments.”
“Comment period or not, there were obvious indications that representatives wanted additional time to review the policy,” said Vice Chair Jack Johanning ’17.
Johanning continued, “The more substantive discussions about the alcohol policy have been discussed thoroughly by council and should be decided quickly at the beginning of next year to ensure the College’s policy is consistent with its practices.”
Taylor has been pessimistic that the alcohol policy in its current form is what the students envisioned when they helped start the Alcohol Task Force.
“I think we’re slowly stripping away everything that was put in the original draft to put students’ minds at ease and will eventually end up with a document that’s not just the same but possibly even stricter in some ways, dictated by administrators because while the sway of those of us on Campus Council … is over as soon as we change over [to new representatives] … Several of the administrators … have very particular notions that often conflict with students’ ideas about how alcohol ought to be consumed on campus,” said Taylor.
“If students don’t demand that their representatives on Campus Council show some spine, then nothing that students want is going to be in