The College will continue its investigation of the College's alcohol policy with a weekend retreat scheduled for Feb. 21 and a new alcohol task force scheduled to be formed in the Spring term.
A coalition of 30 students and administrators will meet for ten hours on Feb. 21 to "tune up" the alcohol policy, Coed Fraternity Sorority Council President Matt Raben '96 said yesterday.
Dean of the College Lee Pelton said the retreat will serve a number of purposes.
"There are a number of issues relating to the management of CFS social events where alcohol is served," Pelton said. "The main purpose of the retreat will be to resolve these issues," he added.
Pelton said he expects the task force to do the majority of work concerning the revision of the alcohol policy.
"The task force will examine underage drinking all across campus and examine safety with alcohol and gender relationships," Pelton said.
Pelton said he hopes the task force will present its findings by the end of Spring term.
Although Pelton has yet to name specific goals or even someone to chair the task force, he said he intends to start forming the group as soon as possible.
"I think it is unrealistic to establish as a goal that there would be no underage drinking on campus. Nevertheless, we need to examine how to reduce it," Pelton said.
Pelton implemented a new alcohol policy at the end of Winter term in 1993 allowing coed, fraternity and sorority system members to register kegs for parties. At the time, he proposed reviewing the changes two years later.
"We're trying to formulate a plan that would involve charging a task force to look at some of the wider, more complicated issues involving alcohol," Dean of Residential Life Mary Turco said.
Pelton said he plans to ask the task force to make recommendations regarding the membership and to reevaluate the goals of the College Committee of Alcohol and Other Drugs.
Pelton said he would also ask the task force to offer suggestions about how the College could effectively review how it works with alcohol programming.
The activities of the task force will constitute the third phase of a three-part process Pelton, Turco and Assistant Dean of Residential Life Deb Reinders have been planning for the past several months.
The first phase of Pelton's process started two years ago after the College instituted its new drinking policy.
"This has been an information gathering phase," Pelton said.
Turco and Reinders have been recently meeting with students, administrators and house advisers to compose a list of alcohol concerns.
The February weekend retreat is the second step in the process.
Among the 30 students and administrators who will attend the retreat, six will represent the Interfraternity Council while three will represent the Panhellenic Council.
"Since most events take place in IFC houses, they will have more representation," Turco said.
Eight more CFS-affiliated students, four CFS advisor and six administrators will also participate in the retreat.
Turco has also requested that Student Assembly President Rukmini Sichitiu '95 nominate 10 nonaffiliated students to participate. Turco said she and the other administrators would select three of those.
Raben said monitoring will be a major topic of discussion.
According to the current policy, monitors are responsible for making sure all students drinking at a CFS party are wearing bracelets, which are only given out to students who are 21 or older.
Raben said the College has expressed chagrin over a lack of reports of underage drinking at CFS parties.
"The finger's pointed at the monitors," he said.
Audrey Wagner '95, wrote a report in December for Pelton evaluating the alcohol policy.
Wagner recommended changes regarding the monitoring system to the CFSC, calling for more stringent monitoring rules and more funding for the monitor system.
The activities of the drinking task force will "relate to broader issues," Pelton said.
Former CFSC President Chris Donley recently released his Executive Summary of the CFS Alcohol Report.
In it, Donley stated that "the distribution of beer has been cut approximately in half since the policy took effect."
Pelton he was unsure how accurate Donley's assessment was.
"I think we have to test the truth of that," Pelton said.
Donley defended his conclusions.
"That was a loose estimate based on discussions with social chairs and beer distributors. I think that's a reasonable estimate," Donley said.
