Eleven other students and four deans were in attendance.  The deans present were Katy Smith Abbott (Dean of Students), Shirley Collado (Dean of the College and Chief Diversity Officer), Ian Sutherland (Cook Commons), and Lisa Boudah (Associate Dean of the College and Director of Public Safety).

The primary announcement at the forum concerned the soon-to-happen creation of a Task Force on Alcohol and Student Life that will be co-chaired by Dean Katy Smith Abbott and a member of the faculty (to be determined).  There will be twelve people on the task force in total, including five student representatives and several other representatives from College faculty, Public Safety, and Custodial Services.

The task force will be charged with researching and adopting recommendations about alcohol use and student life that are to be presented to President Liebowitz in April 2012 for his consideration.

Discussion touched upon a number of topics that will be directly applicable to the task force’s deliberations in the upcoming months.  The role of Public Safety in enforcing alcohol policy, the possible disincentives that students have to comply with party regulations, and the proper methods of fostering a culture of personal responsibility were all common themes that reappeared throughout the meeting.

Deans Smith Abbott and Collado are encouraging students with thoughts about these topics or questions about the task force to talk with them in person or to reach them via email.  Their addresses are scollado@middlebury.edu and smithabb@middlebury.edu, respectively.

(photo via flickr/sovietuk)

Collado will work with students to address specific solutions in the near future. Email her at scollado at middlebury dot edu to get involved.

(To self-promote) you can read my more serious spin on all things d-rank related in the Op-Ed section of this Thursday’s The Campus.

Until then, what do you think? Here’s your chance to reform actual policy (Mr.I-emailed-Obama-all-my-ideas-for-the-budget…I got that lousy autographed headshot too. I don’t care that you have a dreamy smile Mr. President, I was trying to share with you all my AMAZING IDEAS). You can also see here what Colby College proposed in order to assuage their dorm damage (Note: It involves roller blades and blow jobs).

Ideas I liked from the forum (and my own brain):
• Liebowitz acknowledged the need for a multi-pronged approach: Academic Stress, Public Safety, Social Spaces/Events
• Reform of Public Safety policies regarding citations, interactions with registered parties, noise complaints and general breaking-up of events
• Amend process of registration for parties
• Incentify social houses to create events prioritizing responsible drinking in communal spaces
• Include education on dorm damage and subsequent tuition hikes in first year orientation.
• The effect of academic intensity on drinking habits must be taken into account. This institution is accelerating in its scholastic achievements and the social scene changes radically with each freshman class. Surely the rising rates of first-year drinking correlates to the decreasing percentage of applicants we accept.
• Those who commit violence or damage under the influence should be punished for committing violence and damage, not for drinking.

Read up on the current alcohol policy here .
Read Ron’s views on the forum here

The video itself is also produced by Midd folk – Ian Durkin 10.5 edited the piece. Evan Daniel ’10, Edge Trullinger’10 , and Mike Waters ’10 are all working up at WhistlePig Whiskey for the summer.

Thanks to a MiddBlog tipster who sent this in. Have something for MiddBlog? tips@midd-blog.com.

Residential Adviser (RA) training continues this week and is beginning to reflect the philosophical changes the President outlined. One of the major talking points for RAs, FYCs, and CRAs is finding ways to make students accountable to one another instead of to an “authority” like Public Safety or the Health Center. And as a part of this accountability, the residential staff is trying out a system that relies on friend networks:

If a student needs medical attention, Public Safety will transport him or her to Porter Hospital. If a student is intoxicated and with friends, the responsibility will be on the friends to stay with that person. If a student is intoxicated and alone, Public Safety will transport that person to a “duty office” where residential staff will attempt to “find a sober friend” for that person or stay with the person until morning. If at any time a student’s condition worsens, Public Safety will take back intoxicated students from friends/residential staff for transport to the hospital.

This will help pick up slack for the closure of the Health Center at night and Public Safety who are most busy between the hours of 2-4AM. The “duty office” is essentially babysitting drunk people and residential staff will be paid for their service (currently $40/night but look for the market rate for this job to increase) from 2AM to 6:30AM on weekend nights. The location of the “duty office” is the basement of Ross, in the old gym space. Two years ago, residential staff tried a “hotline” system where residential staff would be called to take care of smaller incidents (like noise complaints) to release Public Safety for more serious matters.

The idea is to stigmatize going to the “duty office” (please rename it to something like “the fish bowl” or “the tank”) because it really means you have no friends to take care of you. And if your friends are taking care of you, they aren’t going to be pleased doing so and will have a word with you when you sober up, chief.

Will underage drinking citations go away? No — Vermont law, remember? But this new system will be different and will take some time to get used to. Expect the residential staff led by Senior Residence Director Lee Zerilla to tweak the system as the semester unfolds.

This Week in The Campus:

• “Alcohol policy to change“: With a secondary headline of “Council weighs hard liquor ban,” this should get students talking even if they don’t really understand the details. So in plain speak: this is a proposal to the Community Council, a council that presents recommendations to the President of the College for review. For the average student, not much practical will change in terms of citation policy, since the majority of students don’t get citations from Public Safety. Reading into the article, I think this will mean less focus will be placed on giving citations to underage drinkers and more focus on those kids doing dorm damage/getting belligerent. The seriousness of a citation, therefore, will go up. As for a proposed hard liquor ban, it applies to registered parties only. Okay, so maybe goodbye Purple Jesus, but most registered parties are kegs anyway. It’s the unregistered parties that serve hard liquor. MiddBlog posted on this topic back in September as part of the “major conversations of the year.”
• “Future of ENAM Comps undecided“: The end of Comps as we know it has been no secret, even to the many kids who are slaving away over the dozens of novels this J-term. Way back into last year, it was very apparent that Comps were in for a major change — in this case, ENAM is going first.
• “Professors push to proctor exams“: Faculty are jumping the honor-code ship left and right. But, Karen Guttentag’s idea of opt-in proctored exams is pretty novel. Perhaps it will allow us to find the right balance on campus even if it somewhat undermines the whole concept of an honor code. Maybe we should chat with our Haverford pals and see how they got so good at the honor code.
• “Panelists give voice to Gaza conflict“: This article is a bit more balanced than the actual panel discussion which was well attended by students. Mori Rothman ’11 is really coming up as a strong voice on campus and he comes off as incredibly level-headed in a hot conflict. Prof. Carmola sorta fell to background in this panel even though her expertise is deep and important.

We complain about our social lives. What other way is there to pass the weekend other than drinking our weekday sorrows away in our dorm rooms? After all, what is there to do in the middle of nowhere? …and so goes our line of questioning.

51 Main is not THE answer. But it is an answer to our social life question. I visited twice in the past two weeks and decided, above all else, 51 Main is refreshing. It’s something new. And that’s enough to get me excited. Swanky, smooth, dark, and rich – the place really does add a whole new meaning to going out to town.

And it’s the community that really makes this place light up. After a performance at the Town Hall Theater, a whole bunch of folks filtered into 51 Main to hear some jazz and chat over drinks. I said hi to a former professor, an associate dean, various groups of friends who were scattered around. I stole a stawberry off the plate of a friend’s chocolate mousse. It felt rather grown-up, something you don’t often feel when “going out” on a Friday night.

It is that idea of going to a bar, chatting over drinks, mingling with friends and meeting new people that is so enticing and new. And the “grown-up” feeling and community interaction is the best and most concrete answer I’ve seen so far to the perplexing question of alcohol on campus. I didn’t drink a drop of alcohol that night but still had the opportunity to be part of the scene in a legit way. It’s what The Grille’s juice bar/alcohol bar originally was built for but never worked out.

For all the jabs I take at the administration, they did this one right. The Bunker and 51 Main have and will develop into real options for students on a weekend night. And getting the right venues has been a long time coming.

Now let’s hope 51 Main survives winter. Students barely want to walk to dining halls much less downtown. Then again, McCullough to 51 Main is the same distance as BiHall to McCullough.

The college executives are right to be alarmed about the binge drinking that besieges their campuses. But there is no proof that easier access to alcohol would solve that problem, and there is strong evidence that college administrations could do a lot more than they are doing to combat the alcohol epidemic.

MiddBlog wants to know: How much weight does a NYTimes editorial hold?

The Amethyst Initiative seeks to bring college and university leaders together to take a stand against legal age 21. Participating administrators have signed a statement saying:

In 1984 Congress passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, which imposed a penalty of 10% of a state’s federal highway appropriation on any state setting its drinking age lower than 21.

Twenty-four years later, our experience as college and university presidents convinces us that…

A culture of dangerous, clandestine “binge-drinking”—often conducted off-campus—has developed.

Alcohol education that mandates abstinence as the only legal option has not resulted in significant constructive behavioral change among our students.

Adults under 21 are deemed capable of voting, signing contracts, serving on juries and enlisting in the military, but are told they are not mature enough to have a beer.

By choosing to use fake IDs, students make ethical compromises that erode respect for the law.

The approximately 120 signatories include President Rebecca S. Chopp (Colgate University), President James E. Wright (Dartmouth College), President Richard Brodhead (Duke University), President William Brody (Johns Hopkins University), President Lawrence S. Bacow (Tufts University), and Middlebury’s own President Ronald D. Liebowitz.

In case you are as puzzled as I was about the meaning behind the name of the initiative, its website explains:

The word Amethyst is derived from the Ancient Greek words meaning “not” (a-) and “intoxicated” (methustos). …

In Ancient Greece, drinking vessels and jewelry were often made of amethyst and used during feasts and celebrations to ward off drunkenness and to promote moderation.

The amethyst is thus a meaningful symbol for this initiative, which aims to encourage moderation and responsibility as an alternative to the drunkenness and reckless decisions about alcohol that mark the experience of many young Americans.

MiddBlog wants to know: Do you agree with the aims of the Amethyst Initiative? What are your thoughts on President Liebowitz having signed the statement?

Update, 8/24: Ron Liebowitz has addressed the Amethyst Initiative on his own blog and is curious to know your thoughts on the matter.