[1720] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
[Mit-talk] Seeking feedback on alcohol policy
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jessica H Lowell)
Thu Feb 9 12:46:31 2006
Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2006 12:45:38 -0500
From: Jessica H Lowell <jessiehl@mit.edu>
To: mit-talk@mit.edu
Errors-To: mit-talk-bounces@mit.edu
This is bcc-ed to all the dorm talk lists, I think. If I've sent it to the
wrong list, please forward it to the right one. Also, pass it along to the
residents of the FSILGs - I would like to include them, but as far as I know
they don't have talk lists that contain a large proportion of their population.
Background: There were incidents in fall '04 and fall '05 involving "dangerous
alcohol consumption" by freshmen. The freshmen would get drunk, and their
friends, who didn't know what to do, would leave them somewhere to be
discovered, or would be confused because they were in a strange residence and
didn't know who to contact. People from CDSA, SLP, the UA, DormCon, the IFC,
and Panhel were brought together to talk about this.
Disclaimer: This is my attempt to get feedback from students and others in the
community, and I am speaking as an individual who was part of the group, rather
than speaking officially for the group.
The first initiative that the group came up with was "communication and
education of the community" which includes the red "How to help a friend"
posters that you should have gotten and will also include dissemination of
policy/procedure info.
The second initiative involves each dorm developing a sort of
housemaster-or-GRT-on-call system, where some member of the houseteam will be
in the dorm from midnight to 4am during weekend and other "high-risk" times,
and that person's contact info will be posted at the dorm's front desk or
entrance while they are on call so that someone at, say, a party in an
unfamiliar dorm, or bringing a very intoxicated friend home, will know who to
talk to. I believe this idea was presented to the housemasters and received
positively.
A student who is taken to medical for alcohol intoxication will not be subject
to MIT discipline unless the situation also involves violence, sexual assault,
hazing, etc. This also applies to a student who gets another student help.
The student who is treated will be expected to participate in a confidential
alcoholism screening program known as BASICS, which is administered by MIT
Mental Health and consists of two 55 minute meetings, and does not go on the
student's disciplinary record.
Please let me know what you think about this. Also, if you're a member of the
group, and see that I've somehow botched something horribly, speak up.
- Jessie
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