Heated debate over the specifics of the Student Assembly's response to the report by College Committee on Alcohol and Other Drugs broke out during an Assembly meeting yesterday evening.
In a discussion that lasted nearly an hour-and-a-half, the Assembly decided how to modify the document before presenting it to Dean of the College Pelton. The final version was approved by a vote of 24-to-two and included minor changes proposed by Assembly members and agreed upon by members of the Student Life Committee responsible for constructing the document.
Changes included adding a statement about the fact that a significant portion of the student body objects to Safety and Security's involvement in fraternity life.
Some of the response's authors also agreed to include more about Assembly members' qualms regarding one solution to the problem of social responsibility on campus -- a suggestion that students kicked out of a fraternity should return to the house to speak with its officers the nextday.
Vice President for Student Life Dave Gacioch '00 said the Assembly may also modify the suggestion.
The need to return to a house the next day "fosters an adversarial situation between students," Assembly member Alex Yates said. "It encourages people to more or less lie."
Yates proposed that the suggestion be eliminated from the document, but her amendment was defeated by a vote of the Assembly.
Even after the Assembly agreed to make minor changes to its response, Assembly member Jay Bregman '01, one of the body's most vocal members during the meeting, continued to oppose presenting it to Pelton this morning.
Bregman attempted to postpone the presentation, but his motion was not seconded by any other Assembly member.
"There was a deadline for this," Assembly member Paul Holzer '00 said. "Each and every one of you has had your chance to come to us and help work on this document ... I as a Student Assembly member want to represent the opinion students have given."
Bregman objected to a clause in the document suggesting marking the IDs of students who demonstrated "excessive irresponsible drinking behavior" -- one the Assembly's response noted has had "some student resistance."
"It's essentially the same thing as branding people with scarlet letters on their breasts or Stars of David on their breasts," he said after the meeting.
Bregman also objected to the premise of the response, that the College has a responsibility to enforce state and federal law.
Bregman accused the College after the meeting of "perverting the law" and said that, under the "Environmental Doctrine," the College has an obligation to make sure students are not subjected to any obvious dangers, but does not have to "police the students."
"Write a letter to Dean Pelton," Yates told Bregman during the meeting in response to some of his objections. "The time and place for that is not now."
Assembly President Frode Eilertsen '99 said he was pleased the body agreed to present Dean Pelton with the modified response.
"It was important we had the discussion even if it was long," he said. "[I don't think] anybody was 100 percent satisfied with the report. There were 50 individuals in the room."
