In the next two weeks, the Alcohol Coalition Committee (ACC) will stage two more workshops to gather student input as it begins to draft a strategic plan for the University’s alcohol policy. A successful plan must focus on the realities of student life. No matter what the policy, students will drink and a vast majority will not drink dangerously. The key to the plan’s success, therefore, is to create incentives for students to act safely and seek help when it is needed.
The University could encourage safe behavior by adopting a system under which students register room parties with RCAs or other designated people. RCAs could be trained to recognize developing danger and could undergo compulsory CPR training like eating club presidents. If an RCA judges that a party is getting out of hand, and dangerous behavior appears to be taking place, the RCA would break up the party or call Public Safety. People participating in registered parties would face no sanctions if they followed certain rules — no drinking games, for example — while unregistered gatherings would be subject to University punishment. By employing this policy, the University would greatly reduce the danger of dorm-room gatherings, especially as the new four-year residential colleges potentially increase the number of students unaffiliated with eating clubs who may choose to socialize in rooms rather than on the Street. This system would have to be carefully calibrated to ensure that the University does not place itself in legal jeopardy or fail to carry out its responsibilities to parents to safeguard their children. Clearly, this option is not a final answer, but these ways of thinking would lead to a more successful policy.
Second, given the increasing role of sororities and fraternities, the administration should end its policy of non-acknowledgement and instead officially register these organizations. By registering these groups, the University can better hold them accountable for their actions and encourage them to act in a safe manner. Groups that do not register can be penalized for their non-compliance, thus creating an incentive for such groups to register. Once these groups are registered, the University should assign fraternity and sorority presidents the same responsibilities and provide them the same training given to their counterparts at eating clubs.
Finally, the University and the Borough must work together to continuously emphasize that safety is their most important concern. Students must understand that they will face no University or criminal penalties for bringing a sick student to McCosh Health Center or, by extension, the University Medical Center at Princeton. Currently, this message is insufficiently publicized, such that many students still believe that they would be forced to choose between their academic (and post-college) careers and their own well-being. No matter what policies the ACC proposes, it must make a determined effort to combat such misperceptions, lest the cost of ignorance prove unforgivably high.
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