Author: Chris Suzdak
Frustrated by a seemingly stricter alcohol policy and deteriorating social scene, the General Assembly (GA) convened last Tuesday to discuss the school’s on- and off-campus alcohol policy, recently nicknamed the “Big Brother Policy” by Teddy Zou (senior).
There has been a lot of talk around campus about alcohol issues. The GA, the official student forum of the ASOC, run by co-chairs Alex Nourafshan (sophomore) and Kristin Beck (sophomore), is now being used by ASOC Senators to identify possible solutions and ways to work with the administration regarding these concerns.
Teddy Zou and Alex Graves, both senior Senators, started off the meeting by giving a slide show presentation and explaining the current situation – one in which the administration has noticeably stepped up enforcement of off-campus drinking policies and cracked down on houses hosting parties on weekends, they said. In front of nearly 40 students and several administrators, the two student leaders made the case for a collective need to reanalyze these policies which often aren’t clear.
After outlining the College’s current policies along with California State Law, the co-chairs reminded us how the Student Handbook is a contract that we have each agreed to with Occidental. They also contrasted Pomona College’s alcohol policy and overall attitude towards drinking on their campus with Occidental’s in an attempt to show how a school of similar size and stature handles this issue. They concluded by emphasizing that their main objective is to uphold the safety, privacy and respect of the community around the Occidental campus while at the same time ensuring the happiness of the school’s students.
Zou and Graves ended their presentation by stating that they would now proceed to work directly with the administration and report back to the GA at its next meeting to inform the student body of their progress.
The senior Senators believe that the GA is indeed the proper outlet for students to begin to convey these problems in order for real action to be taken. “I believe that the administration will always be willing to listen to our concerns and make revisions to the policies as they see fit while abiding by the law and basic business principles,” Zou said. “Our next move is to come up with recommendations to policies, enforcement decisions and decision making processes to the administration and work with them to create change.”
When the meeting was opened for discussion, many students made sure that their voices were heard. A number of students who live off-campus pointed out that they have felt the burden of having to host parties every weekend, a chore that involves having to provide all of the alcohol and being held responsible for everyone that happens to show up (which, they said, usually includes large numbers of first-years).
Others suggested that there should be more type III events on campus, with the school providing the funds for beer. Another problem raised was that first-year-only dorms create a situation in which new students attempt to “prove themselves” by drinking as much as they can – an activity that usually results in write-ups and the subsequent need to get off-campus to drink in fear of more write-ups, some students said.While representatives from the administration were present, including Tamara Rice, new Director of Student Activities, and Jonathan O’Brien, Associate Dean of Students, they only voiced their opinions when asked for comments at the end of the discussion. They expressed a willingness to work with various student committees to begin the process of changing such policies.
“I liked the discussion and thought the students made some valid points,” said Rice. “It is important for students to learn who the key decision-makers are on campus. It’s about finding out who makes what policy and who can make changes to such policy.”
Next on the agenda was an Honor Board Resolution that was introduced to the GA last spring and for which a vote was now required. Danielle Siegler (sophomore) presented the resolution, which encourages transparency in student government affairs by allowing an elected student government member’s position (i.e., Senior Senator), but not their actual name, to be made public if convicted of an Honor Board violation. A student questioned why the resolution did not simply allow the name of the person convicted to be made public since there are only a limited number of people in each elected position. The resolution passed with a 32-7 vote in favor.
ASOC President Patrick McCredie (senior) finished off the assembly by announcing that he was in the process of making all student committees officially sanctioned through the General Assembly in accordance with the Constitution, meaning that all policy changes made by them must be approved by a GA vote.Whether or not changes will actually be made in regards to these policies, it is clear that students believe progress can be made by working together.
“I think today’s meeting will be productive only if both the students and administration continue to talk about these issues,” Rourke Harrington (senior) said. “I am hoping that this was the first of many future discussions.”
The GA co-chairs hope that this organization, which was started five years ago, will now begin to function as it was designed to.
“We believe that the General Assembly has nowhere near reached its potential,” said Beck. “We have a very unique form of student government, a directly democratic way of dealing with problems, and it relies on every one of us to take it seriously and make it real.”
For any questions regarding the General Assembly, the co-chairs can be reached at asocga@oxy.edu
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