UC To Evaluate Alcohol Amnesty Policies

The Undergraduate Council announced last night that it would be populating an advisory committee to evaluate current alcohol and amnesty policies as originally proposed in an April 2007 report on social clubs.

The committee will be comprised of five undergraduates and five deans. Students can apply for the committee until Nov. 30 at midnight, said chair of the Student Affairs Committee Tamar Holoshitz ’10.

UC President Matthew L. Sundquist ’09 said the committee will be looking at how the policy has been implemented and the effects it has had on students.

The committee’s mission is being shaped in response to a University Health Services College committee meeting that was attended by students and administrators, said Holoshitz, who presented the idea for the committee to the UC as a whole at last night’s meeting.

“The fear that people might be discouraged from taking a friend to UHS,” is the essential reason for the committee, she said.

While the committee will look at the policy in full, UC Vice President Randall S. Sarafa ’09 said a provision that holds club leaders responsible for alcohol use that occurs at their organizations’ parties is a key element that needs to be examined.

While no club leader has been taken to the Administrative Board, leaders have been called into meetings with deans or administrators about what transpired after someone goes to UHS, according to Sarafa.

Fearing possible punishment, club leaders may discourage students, who are not clearly in need of medical attention, from going to UHS, Sarafa said.

“There is a lot more at play than simply the policy itself,” he said. “Issues of liability and legality have to be tackled.”

Members of the committee have not been set in stone, said Holoshitz, who is helping to organize the committee.

Aside from the committee formation, the UC addressed several other issues last night. UC Representative Benjamin M. Zagorsky ’12 presented the “Freshman Brain Break Act.” Zagorsky tracked the times freshmen attended brain break and presented the data to the council. The act recommends that the Freshman Dean’s Office and the Annenberg Dining Hall manager push back brain break 30 minutes so that it starts and begins at 9:15 p.m. The act passed.

The UC also voted 24-2 to allocate $800 to hire a lawyer to examine the legal implications of using Slingboxes at Harvard. Slingboxes would allow students to access cable television on the Internet.

The UC also voted to pass a bill aimed at improving UC relations with the House Committees.