University officials have no immediate plans to move Spring Fling out of the Quadrangle, but many want to change the "underlying culture" of the University's annual festival.
The University Council -- a group of students, faculty and administrators that meets monthly to discuss campus issues -- debated safety problems surrounding what Faculty Director of College Houses and Academic Services Philip Nichols called "the mid-Atlantic's largest alcohol party" at its meeting yesterday.
Most council members agreed that a change of venue is not the answer to safety concerns that range from alcohol abuse to property damage. Next spring's event will take place in the Quad as planned.
"It would come as a harsh reality to change it for undergraduates," College senior and Undergraduate Assembly Chairwoman Rachel Fersh said. "Mass student backlash would occur."
The council does not have the power to make any direct changes, although Fersh said University President Amy Gutmann uses the body's suggestions in her decision-making.
Although most council members agreed that moving the event would break with tradition, representatives ranging from Provost Ron Daniels to undergraduates said that Spring Fling needs better security measures.
But Nichols -- whom Daniels asked to speak about his own experiences with safety problems -- blamed many of the event's hazards on the "hundreds of places [in the Quad] in which people can either collapse or engage in harmful behavior undetected."
"Those unmonitored areas are deadly," Nichols said. "It is scary. ... It's difficult to describe, if you haven't been, how unsafe it can be."
However, several student representatives on the Council said that Nichols exaggerated the hazards of the event and that student-led initiatives -- like teams of volunteers who pledge to stay sober -- would effectively curb overdrinking.
"We don't want this event to become something that is policed," UA Vice Chairman and College senior Zack Rosenblum said.
University Chaplain William Gipson suggested that students be required to sign an "oath of community" each spring pledging to behave moderately at Spring Fling.
"When individuals really commit, it takes on a sense of ownership on an individual level," Gipson said.
