Rodin: Policy involved 'great deal of consultation'

University President Judith Rodin countered charges that her administration has not sought input on alcohol policy. With hundreds of students expected at a rally today to protest the University's failure to discuss with students the temporary ban on alcohol at registered undergraduate parties before imposing it, University President Judith Rodin defended her administration's actions and said yesterday that "there was a great deal of consultation? over the past two years." In a letter to the University community yesterday, Rodin and Provost Robert Barchi explained that although the administration did not specifically consult the students over the decision announced last Thursday, there have been other initiatives and projects in place giving students a voice in the discussion on alcohol abuse at Penn. "My question in fact is why more students didn't choose to involve themselves seriously at the many occasions in which we asked for consultation and input with regard to these issues," Rodin said in an interview yesterday. Rodin and Barchi listed the various programs and discussions on alcohol abuse held over the past two years that invited student participation, including a special committee which reviewed student alcohol abuse throughout 1998 and student sessions held by Rodin to discuss alcohol use. Rodin stressed that there have been "constant efforts" from the Vice Provost for University Life, the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs, the Division of Public Safety and the Office of Student Health Education to engage students in consultation about alcohol use and abuse. "I think these conversations yielded some noteworthy results but I have to say that after two years of consultation, we are deeply troubled that they haven't changed sufficiently the culture of our community," Rodin said, adding that it was up to the provost's task force to make this consultative effort different from previous ones. She also stressed that the administration's decision was made as an intentionally temporary one but that she didn't think the University could afford to wait. "We as a community need to take a deep breath and really ask ourselves what we're doing here and whether we're doing it well enough," she said. "If we had developed then a deep and lengthy deliberative process, yet another weekend would have gone by and we didn't know what that weekend would bring." Both Rodin and Barchi noted that the 18-member task force chaired by Barchi to examine alcohol problems on campus is comprised of an apt combination of administrators, faculty members and students. The group meets for the first time today. Barchi, who stressed the importance of student input within the task force, said it would be a valuable part of the upcoming evaluation of alcohol policy, calling it "a venue in which we can make progress by working together with students and faculty." But many students noted that while they value the undergraduate representation on the committee, they still feel slighted by the action taken by the administration throughout the past week. Undergraduate Assembly Vice Chairperson Michael Bassik, a College sophomore, noted that Rodin cannot excuse the exclusion of students from the recent decision by citing the lack of student participation in past alcohol programming and initiatives. "I feel the administration has vastly improved student involvement on committees that do not create University policy," Bassik said, adding that "when it comes to policy formation at Penn, the voice of the students is all too often muffled by the administration." InterFraternity Council President Mark Metzl, a College junior, said he believes the task force will effectively enable the administration and students to discuss the issues surrounding alcohol abuse on campus. But he added that "students would have liked to be part of this decision from the onset." Rodin maintained that student input will be key in the upcoming discussions. She noted that in order to determine effective measures to combat alcohol abuse, students must work "collectively" with the administration. "This has to go hand in hand if there are to be changes that are transformative in terms of how people think about the use of alcohol and their own health and safety," Rodin said. And Barchi asked students not to let the controversy over consultation obscure the true issue. "We have a window of opportunity," he said. "We should not allow [it] to be closed by having concerns deflected for things that are not really on the main track." Several alcohol-related incidents occurred over the weekend following Thursday's announcement to ban alcohol at registered undergraduate parties and strictly enforce the alcohol policy and drinking laws. University Police cited three students for alcohol offenses while several others were stopped by officers investigating possible alcohol-related offenses. The Liquor Control Enforcement bureau cited two students last Thursday but LCE officials said that there were no Penn-affiliated citations over the weekend. One University Police officer said that they were told by their superiors to be less lenient with regards to liquor law violations.