In the days following the announcement, Penn's campus reacts

Alcohol crack-down takes effect Alcohol crack-down takes effectUniversity Police issued a handful of warnings and citations during the first weekend of Penn's new alcohol policies. University Police issued several alcohol citations and conducted numerous related investigations over the weekend -- the first under Penn's policy of stricter enforcement of the law and an indefinite ban on registered undergraduate parties with alcohol. And while a number of news organizations reported over the weekend that the ban would last six weeks, Provost Robert Barchi insisted that there was no set time limit and that he is open to ending it as soon as a task force sends its recommendations to Penn President Judith Rodin. Barchi added that the temporary ban would be among the very first issues the committee of 18 professors, administrators and student leaders would discuss. The group, announced Friday, will also recommend more permanent solutions to the University's current alcohol situation and will likely be in session for the six remaining weeks of the semester. Officials set the new measures in place four days after 26-year-old University alumnus Michael Tobin fell down a flight of cement stairs to his death behind the Phi Gamma Delta house on March 21. Tobin had been drinking throughout the previous day, police said. FIJI has since been suspended by both the University and its national chapter until a final judgment and possible punishment are decided upon. It was unclear last night whether Liquor Control Enforcement agents -- who busted two downtown sorority parties last weekend -- broke up any parties affiliated with the University or near campus this weekend. But University Police began enforcing the measures this weekend. Officers gave out at least three citations for underage drinking and investigated several people who were seen with alcohol. They also broke up at least one house party. Further details of weekend events were unavailable as of last night, as police and LCE officials could not be reached for comment. Police gave the first citation to an underage male University student at about 1 a.m. Saturday morning. Police observed the student walking outside Billybob's on the 200 block of South 40th Street carrying a brown bag with an alcoholic beverage inside. Police also issued citations to two underage male students they observed to be intoxicated while returning home to the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity house at 235 S. 39th Street. Both students were cited and police brought one of them to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, though the student was not admitted, police said. InterFraternity Council Executive Vice President Andrew Exum said the IFC is worried that incidents like this will discourage students from helping friends who have had too much to drink. "If this was a case in which one student was looking after another student who had had too much to drink? people may be hesitant to take their friends to the hospital" for fear of being cited if they have also been drinking, said Exum, a College junior and DP columnist. But Barchi, who said last night that he was not familiar with that specific incident, maintained that students would never get in trouble for helping a friend. "It absolutely remains in our policy that the health and safety of our students comes first, period," he said. There were also several instances of the police investigating potential liquor law violations that did not lead to citations. On Friday night at about 6 p.m., police came across a beverage company delivering a keg and a case of beer to the Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity house at 3539 Locust Walk, University Police said. After making inquiries, police found that the person who had ordered the keg was underage. Because the alcohol was not yet in the house, police gave only warnings and copies of the University's alcohol policy to the fraternity and also to the company delivering the alcohol. They also prevented the company from delivering the alcohol to the house, according to the University Police report. Phi Kappa Sigma President Dave Goldberger, a Wharton junior, refused to comment on the incident. Later that night, at about 1:45 a.m., two police officers entered a house on the 4000 block of Pine Street that was holding a large party. They warned the residents of the house that they would return "in a little bit" to make sure the party had broken up on its own, said two students who live in the house. Police did not return, but the hosts kicked out everyone who was underage, leaving just 40 people in the house. And on Saturday, at around 7 p.m., police observed the Stones Beverage Company delivering a keg to a home on the 4000 block of Spruce Street. The residents who live in the house said that a police officer arrived with his vehicle lights flashing and questioned their 21-year-old friend who had ordered the keg. Earlier Saturday on the same block, Penn Police stopped two underage students who were bringing alcohol from a car into a house. They were not cited because they claimed to be helping a 21-year-old friend bring it inside.