Committee on College Life examines policies

Jen Dixon News Editor

The Committe on College Life, consisting of 18 members of the faculty, administration, and student body, was designed to evaluate and edit policies that affect all areas of Vassar life, except for the academic or library policies covered by other comparable committees.

Chaired by Dean of the College J.J. Jackson, members have the ability to present their proposals to College President Fran Fergusson.

In a series of monthly meetings beginning in late September, this year’s committee has prioritized consistency and clarity in regulations pertaining to student life. It focuses its policy reviews on regulations relating to non-harassment and non-discrimination and for disciplinary action to be taken when there are infractions in the code of conduct.

Rules and regulations relating to conduct violations, in the eyes of the Committee, are not clear enough and may cause problems due to different possible interpretations.

The College’s policies on alcohol are frequently violated by students who may not be entirely aware of the consequences for their behavior. Regulations on alcohol policy are receiving a great deal of attention as the Committee works to evaluate the message that college regulations send to students.
The Committee will also address the constantly shifting nature of student social patterns at Vassar. Regulations regarding private parties. These have changed a great deal in recent years. This year, the Committee plans to examine the rules, see if they are working, and fine tune them as committee members see fit.

“We have an ad hoc group that’s working on looking at all those places where those regulations appear and trying to clarify them and make everything consistent,” said Jackson. “We’re working with a law firm that often helps the College with different kinds of issues to make sure the wording is what it should be.”

The clarification in how alcohol polices are worded is meant to inform students of their own rights and ensure that if the College were confronted with a lawsuit, its stance on underage drinking and alcohol-related disturbances would be clearly documented.

Some topics relating to college life are more complicated than others.

“Sometimes it’s obvious. There’s a regulation that was a good idea ten years ago or more [and has now become obsolete],” said Assistant to the Dean of the College Andrew Meade.

In these cases the Committee reaches a consensus quickly. The topic of alcohol-related regulations, stressed Meade, is not one of these easily decided issues.

The most significant of the subcommittees is currently the Alcohol Task Force, made up of members of the Committee and additional members of the community with an interest in alcohol regulations.
Chaired by Director of Campus Activities Ray Parker, the Task Force is broken up into even smaller subcommittees that deal with specific areas of alcohol-related policy. These include private parties, public events, the Mug, and security or enforcement.

The Committee has final say in College Regulations. At times, members invite people in the College community to discuss their concerns during a meeting, or invite an expert to address a particular topic.

For example, Associate Dean and Director of Equal Opportunity and Disability and Support Services Belinda Guthrie spoke at a recent meeting on the the issue of discipline in cases of harassment or discrimination. The question, according to Meade, is that of whether discipline is meant to be punishment or education.

Jackson stressed that, despite some confusion amongst students last semester, the Office of the Dean of the College is not looking to change the College’s alcohol policies. The Office’s goal (with the Committee as its primary means of achieving it), is to clearly articulate and present the policies that have long been considered necessary.

“There was confusion there with students thinking I was trying to change things, but when you are trying to clarify things, there can be misinterpretations,” Jackson said.

In addition to its analysis of the regulations printed in the Student Handbook and other such documents, the Committee examines the way in which such regulations are put into practice in everyday life.

Examining the habits of Vassar students in particular is a key portion of the Committee’s analysis, as student behavior varies from institution to institution. The Alcohol Task Force has examined survey results on alcohol.edu. The site is one that many students, especially members of the Class of 2008, have seen and in which they have participated.

Alcohol.edu is an online, anonymous educational tutorial that all first-year students were asked to take prior to arriving on campus. This site was chosen from the multiple similar alcohol-tutorial sites because, unlike many of its competitors, it is not run by an alcohol company.

530 first-year students, 158 parents, and 75 upperclassman student leaders went to the website. 224 students took the followup survey sent approximately six weeks after their first use of the site, which collected information on whether or not their attitudes toward alcohol had changed.

While the bulk of the Committee's discussions focus on disciplinary policies, Director of Health Education Michelle Soucy is an advisor to the Alcohol Task Force who examines how education can address the issue before a violation occurs.

"My role here is strictly educational. I don't get involved in after the fact, as far as violations," said Soucy.

The workshop that Soucy operates for students who have violated alcohol policy and been assigned to counseling "asks why students get in trouble with alcohol. It asks about what was going on in their lives that they put themselves at risk," she said.

“The difficulty is, how do you respond?” said Jackson. “It’s not possible to stop underage drinking on college campuses. And while faculty and administrators across the country know that, it’s still against the law. You can’t look the other way. If something happens, if a college is sued, you can’t say you looked the other way. That’s the quandary we find ourselves in.”

Jackson expressed her goal of allowing students to feel as though they are being treated as adults without appearing to give blanket permission for unsafe behavior. Although the College’s alcohol policy may make students feel as though they are being “policed,” she said, administrators need to feel as though students are being compelled to behave responsibly.

In late February, Jackson plans to organize a town meeting open to students. An agenda of that meeting will potentially be offered in advance, so that those attending will have the opportunity to pose questions beforehand.

“I think what will come, hopefully, is a better understanding of what the issues are on campus, why they are what they are,” said Meade.

With time to prepare answers to these questions in advance, committee members and administrators will be able to gain as much student input as possible.

The Office has placed a priority on making the Committee a body in which the voice of the students is clearly heard.

"One of the things I brought up was the need for consistency among the three governing bodies that carry out disciplinary action," said Acting Director of Residential Life Celestino Limas. He cited Residential Life, the Associate Dean of the College, and the College Regulations panel as the three most significant offices in these cases.

"If the three of us can work from the same philosophy...it will improve consistency as well as credibility," he said.

The last Committee meetings in April will consist of ensuring that the group has resolved any issues previously brought to the table. The Committee will solicit recommendations from various interest groups on campus whose concerns may not have been addressed earlier on, and try to ensure that changes are submitted and agreed upon.

In the case of college alcohol policies, the Committee hopes to have thoroughly discussed the most important issues by the end of the semester.

“It’s not a perfect system, we’re never going to please everybody,” said Jackson of her office’s plans to facilitate communication between the Dean of the College division of the administration and the broader student body.