Spring Break
Town hall tackles alcohol issue
Jason F. Siegel
Issue date: 1/12/06 Section: News
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The meeting was fairly informal, with Liebowitz dressed in a relaxed manner, wearing a button-down shirt and denims, and declining to use the provided microphone. In a fairly unusual procedure, for most of the meeting Liebowitz asked for candid opinions of the students, the vast majority of whom were under 21 but quite willing to comment frankly on their drinking habits, instead of community members asking questions of the president.
"One of the reasons for this meeting is for me and my administrative colleagues to address the perception of social life on campus," said Liebowitz at the beginning of the meeting. "The other reason is to address related safety issues."
One of the first points made was that the new guest list policy has profoundly altered the atmosphere of the social houses, a cornerstone of residential life on campus, for instead of being open to all, the houses must restrict admission to the parties. Ioana Literat '09 followed that point, stating that there are many people admitted to parties not on the guest list based on their gender, especially women, and even within that group, based on how they are dressed.
Several students made the point that students on guest lists tend to plan to go to the same parties every week, which creates cliques and restricts social life on campus, and also encourages people to do all their drinking at the social house parties. "It doesn't change how people drink. It changes how people get around [the law]," said Eli Menaker '08. Indeed, a common theme of the meeting was that when 18-year-olds are not allowed to drink in the open, they will often drink in private, where there is no surveillance or control.