Students drum up social life task force goals

Author: Dan Stevens

The recently formed Social Life Task Force met again on Friday to continue its discussion of social life at the College. The administration formed the Task Force in response to a student call for changes at Middlebury. While the eventual goal of the task force is the presentation of a comprehensive, suggestive report to President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz, the group of students is still in its organizing and goal setting-stages. Friday's meeting included assigning Task Force members basic responsibilities and a continued discussion in which students debated and discussed in the hopes of identifying the root of the problem with social life on campus.

Dean of the College Tim Spears and Dean of Student Affairs Ann Hanson represented the administration at the meeting. Spears and Hanson, true to their claim that they were present only to offer support, turned the meeting over to the students within the first 10 minutes.

In discussing the goals for the Task Force, the students quickly sought to address the main problems concerning social life. Marco Casas '07 suggested that the students start their discussion about residential parties and "why they aren't working." Other topics of discussion included the importance of alcohol as a part of social life, and the 21-year-old divide at social events.

The Task Force also developed the idea of the creation of a Segue site that would include feedback from students concerning the role of social life at the College. The students noted the long-term goals of the task force which included speaking with Director of Public Safety Lisa Boudah, a patrol officer from Public Safety and the Middlebury Police Chief Tom Hanley.

Esther Guidos '08 addressed the degree to which Public Safety might be involved in the social life reforms to occur at Middlebury. "We could ask [Public Safety] what they see as the problems going on at Middlebury. We can have them tell us where they are coming from." Casas also mentioned the need for meeting with the Chief of Police along with Public Safety to find out exactly which reforms were possible and which were simply off the table. Micah Gurard-Levin '07 suggested that the Task Force first determine the exact nature of the problem. "I think we need to identify and put into words exactly what is wrong with social life at Middlebury," he said. The group outlined how this would provide the foundation for detailing necessary reforms.

"I think this is harder and more abstract, but we also need to address the alternatives to alcohol at Middlebury, because there are a lot of opportunities," said Sam Temes '07.

Gurard-Levin responded by discussing the problem inherent in viewing non-alcohol related activities as alternatives and not as a bona fide avenue for social life in their own right. "That might be the truth, but that might, in fact, be the problem: that we consider not drinking the alternative. That marginalizes people who decide not to drink," he explained. Members also discussed the prospect of inviting the president of Xenia, the College's substance-free social house, as well as other student leaders that deal with social life at Middlebury to participate in the Task Force's discussions.

After raising these issues, the task force then met with a representative from Tufts University. Ricardo Jordan, a grad student at Tufts, works in the student activities office as a coordinator of the Tufts Events Staff, which is responsible for supervising school-sponsored events.

"When the party starts, we deal with two things - the safety of the environment and the safety of the students," Jordan told the task force. Jordan explained that the Event Staff acts as a mediating force between the Tufts University Police Department and the student body. "It's more comfortable to have students supervising the parties then to have TUPD walking through with their big hats and making everyone nervous." Responsibilities of the Events Staff include checking IDs at the door and deterring anyone from bringing outside containers into an event.

Several members of the task force responded positively to developing a similar system at Middlebury. The Task Force explicitly addressed the problem of getting under-21 students to attend parties with alcohol for those of age. Jordan mentioned that this is largely not a problem at Tufts, but most of the events he supervises are for large parties - similar to the Middlebury Winter Ball or Orange Crush in Ross dining hall. The Events Staff also supervises cultural shows and other events that are registered by student organizations.

Many task force members were optimistic about bringing a Tufts-like Events Staff to Middlebury. "Having an Events Staff member actually checking IDs as opposed to someone in the party's sponsoring organization would dramatically improve relations with Public Safety," Temes said.

The Task Force will continue its meetings through the rest of this semester and into next year, when they hope to present a report to President Liebowitz that will serve as an impetus for change and improve the nature of social life at Middlebury.