[1726] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Re: [Mit-talk] Seeking feedback on alcohol policy
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Andrew Lukmann)
Thu Feb 9 18:20:54 2006
Date: Thu, 09 Feb 2006 18:20:21 -0500
From: Andrew Lukmann <lukymann@mit.edu>
To: Jessica H Lowell <jessiehl@mit.edu>
In-Reply-To: <20060209124538.4cq659l8rwv4g4o0@webmail.mit.edu>
Cc: mit-talk@mit.edu
Errors-To: mit-talk-bounces@mit.edu
Hey Jessie,
It's unfortunate that you missed the meeting with the housemasters last week on this subject because your statement that the GRT-on-call concept was "
received positively" is somewhat less than accurate. Dean Benedict, the housemasters, a representative from Panhel and I spent a half hour discussing the issue, the concept and possible concerns. While the housemasters were generally not convinced of the merits of a GRT-on-call system and saw it basically as more trouble than it was worth, they were overwhelmingly in support of facilitating student communication with the Dean on Call, a trained staff member who can arrange for confidential transport. The current problem is that in order for a student to contact the Dean on Call, a student must first dial the Police who then transfer the call. There is a follow-up meeting early next week to try to figure out the logistics of making the Dean direct-dialable or somehow removing the Police from the equation. Even though I agreed with certain administrators that the Police are taking strides to become more student-friendly, I made sure to communicate the strong stigma amongst stu!
dents about "calling the Police" on a friend or acquaintance who needs help. Jessie, you (or anybody else on the list for that matter) should feel free to contact me with any ideas or feelings about the Dean on Call taking a more prominent (and more easily accessible) role in helping students in need of assistance.
-Andrew L.
A suggestion:
Develop and heavily advertise a confidential help number that people
can call. This number should NOT be the Campus Police; nobody wants
that call recorded, and nobody feels comfortable calling police from
that sort of situation anyhow, no matter how many promises they make.
Think Nightline-like levels of confidentiality, staffed with people
trained to talk people through first-response, and to arrange for
confidential medical transport.
Again, this absolutely can't involve police.
Jeremy
Jessica H Lowell wrote:
> 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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