Author: Ryan Strong
A group of students led by Kenji Hammon (sophomore) created a Facebook group dedicated to collecting student opinions on administrative policy, mostly focusing on drug and alcohol policy and putting those ideas into action. Over a couple of weeks membership in the closed group has ballooned to over 650 people.
Students have made numerous comments on alcohol issues. While some question whether Occidental really has to ban drinking to abide by federal law, others argue that the issue is not about legalization of underage drinking but rather the administration’s approach to dealing with alcohol and the perceived lack of student input in the policy.
“Certain statements by the administration have suggested that what we think doesn’t matter,” Nick Wright (sophomore) posted on the page.
“Essentially, the administration doesn’t see Oxy as belonging to the students. Instead, it belongs to wealthy alumni, the board and its reputation . . . Call me naive if you want, but I think the experience of students should be the primary justification for any decision made by Oxy.”
Wright cites Haverford as an example of a liberal arts institution that uses a direct-democracy system to decide policy issues.
But organizers of the Facebook page, including Hammon, David Cotton (sophomore) and Issac Tovares (sophomore), say that their goal is not to attack the administration but rather to work with it improve policy.
“We’re trying to find a solution for the community as a whole,” Hammon said.
Cotton said that the goal of the organizers is to act as a mediator between students and the administration and not to dictate the conversation.
“We’re not trying to put our policies down on paper, we’re trying to put the student-body’s policies on paper,” Cotton said.
Organizers of the Facebook Page recently announced that they were drafting a letter to the Dean of Students on alcohol policy. But the group is not rushing through the process. It will continue discussing issues and working on the letter before it starts gathering signatures.
“Our movement will be focused on the second semester because timing right now sucks,” Hammon said. Cotton mentioned that summer time is when policies get the most extensive changes and the group has the best chance to be influential if it waits a little while before presenting the petition.
The group’s Facebook page has been a platform for various ideas for policy improvements to be introduced and commented on.
“Obviously there are some comments on there that I don’t agree with, but I’m totally okay with that, everybody gets their say,” Hammon said. He also mentioned that everybody has a stake in these policies and the discussion should be open to everyone.
“People that don’t want to drink are just as important as those that do want to drink,” Hammon said.
Cotton and the other organizers acknowledged that the administration has legal obligations relating to alcohol policy but stressed that the issue is about enforcement practices, not policy language and there are ways to adjust enforcement without violating the law.
“The administration has beaten that argument into the ground,” Cotton said. “We can all see that there is room for improvement.”
Hammon decided to launch the Facebook page to help facilitate those improvements after growing frustrated with administration policies on alcohol.
“I was fed up, three times more than top 50 liberal arts schools is ridiculous,” he said, referring to alcohol disciplinary referrals.
Organizer Isaac Tovares became an administrator on the site early on.
“I wanted to get involved because you hear a lot of chatter about what people wanted and this is a good way to channel that,” Tovares said.
The administration has been open to students getting involved in the conversation on alcohol enforcement practices, discussing changes to large event policies and similar issues at the Dean’s Advisory Council, a focus group made up of both students and administrators. In addition, Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Student Life Tamara Rice is planning a general assembly meeting to introduce and debate recommended changes to the college.
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