Dean of Residential Life Martin Redman solicited feedback on the new Alcohol Management Program proposal at the weekly general meeting of the Student Assembly Tuesday night. If adopted AMP will replace the Social Event Management Procedures, the College's current alcohol policy. The proposal was released last Tuesday by Dean of the College Tom Crady.
Among a number of changes, AMP will eliminate distinctions between types of social events on campus and require organizations to submit a weekly schedule of all events at which alcohol will be served. The new policy relaxes restrictions on hard alcohol and kegs by generalizing regulations for all events where alcohol and over 30 people are present. If the proposal is approved, AMP could go into effect as early as this Spring term.
Assembly members and students in attendance discussed the new policies and presented concerns to Redman and Eric Ramsey, director of the Collis Center and student activities.
Specifically, students challenged the lack of restrictions on hard alcohol and kegs, regardless of the kind of event.
"If [AMP is] about taking responsibility for service and keeping people safe, does it really matter what kind of alcohol you're serving?" Redman asked. "At the end of the day, really the issue isn't about how much quantity do we approve, but the issue is if you serve it responsibly to your guests."
Robert Hoffman '10 asked how Greek organizations should address spontaneous gatherings where more than 30 students show up.
"As the policy is written now, there is not an on-the-fly option," Ramsey said. The SEMP policy includes a provision for "on-the-fly" events, which can be scheduled the day of the event.
The management of on-the-fly parties is something that needs to be looked at, Redman said, but the emphasis of AMP is planning and on-the-fly parties do not leave time for necessary preparation.
In his presentation, Redman brought up several of the proposed changes to the College's alcohol policy, specifically the emphasis on the number of people attending an event. AMP no longer differentiates between member-only and campus-wide events, but is based on the number of students present. Redman said that the significant range in size of organizations that might sponsor events under AMP made it difficult to have regulations for members-only events.
"If we say members-only, that can apply to the largest organization," Redman said.
Ruslan Tovbulatov '09, Student Life Committee chair, asked if Safety and Security would perform safety walk-throughs during Wednesday-night fraternity and sorority meetings. Redman said that walk-throughs will most likely take place at primarily larger events.
AMP will direct Safety and Security so that it visits different organizations equally, Redman said. The new proposal does not call for a security increase.
Students trained to serve alcohol under SEMP will not be qualified under AMP guidelines because students did not find SEMP training very useful, Redman said. According to Redman, AMP will have a new two-part training session that will include one fact-based, online portion and one in-house portion.
Redman added that he continues to look for feedback and suggestions for AMP.
Also at the meeting, the Assembly passed legislation to fund a focus group study of students who abstain from alcohol or identify themselves as "light drinkers." According to the legislation, past surveys show that as many as 40 percent of College undergraduates consider themselves abstainers or light drinkers. The Assembly will allocate up to $200 for food and recording equipment for the focus groups.
The Assembly also passed legislation to continue to fund a bus service from Hanover to New York for the Thanksgiving and winter interim breaks. The Assembly will also fund an alumni-student tailgate before Dartmouth's football game against Harvard University this Saturday.
The Assembly confirmed Justin Varilek '11 as alumni chair and Gregory Knight '12 as the Graduate Student Council Student Assembly representative.
