Oscar Bautista
Staff Writer
Last week, Campus Council published the newly revised alcohol policy, cited as the “Student Alcohol and Social Event Policy” on the College’s Wiki page. The new policy succeeded the Alcohol Task Force’s party policy and aims to provide the student body with a straightforward document.
“The three goals I saw for this policy, and any policy created by Campus Council, is to keep students safe, happy and healthy,” said Jack Johanning ‘17, Chair of Campus Council.
The policy is a framework of social conduct of all students and is structured in a manner in which students can easily refer to specific sections without being lost in the wordings and be subject to confusion. In this version, there are clear-cut policies, consequences and solutions to past cumbersome policies.
“I think the previous policy did not include any provisions which held students accountable for their actions if those actions resulted in hospitalization or damage to school property,” said Theresa Spadola ’17, vice chair of Campus Council. “We needed to write a policy that would allow a safe social scene with rules and guidelines that security and ResLife could enforce and support,” Spadola added.
Campus Council has also made additions to battle with issues that arose in the past few years.
“We added a clause in the policy that requires students to only serve alcohol from sealed individual bottles in response to the horrible news of drinks being drugged at a party earlier last year,” said Jordan Griffith ’19, at large councilmember.
“Campus Council has created a fund to finance a section of the policy that compels those hosting a party to provide food and non-alcoholic beverages,” Johanning said. “This provision will help create a safer and hopefully more enjoyable experience for students while also taking the fiscal burden off those hosting a party/social event.”
Dean of Students Scott Brown was present when the council passed the policy and agrees that the new policy will set forth a solid foundation for ensuring safety for students.
“It is clear that everyone was able to agree that the ultimate goal is to create a vibrant, inclusive and safe social environment for all students, and that helped guide our efforts,” said Dean Brown.
To further the initiative of making the social scene safer, Dean Brown has created Committee on the Social Experience (CSE), “a working group of key stakeholders who will develop, evaluate and coordinate initiatives to enhance social life and mitigate high-risk behavior.”
“The CSE will help define metrics for success, evaluate Wooster’s policies, programs and places, coordinate efforts and make recommendations to enhance social life,” said Dean Brown.
The new policy will be released in an abbreviated version which highlights the most important policies in the coming weeks and it will be implemented in next year’s Scot’s Key.
“Students might still grumble; however; the policy is the best version of itself at the time, and I think it moves the campus climate in a good direction,” said Spadola.