The steering committee has decided to revise the university's alcohol policy for the upcoming academic year, responding to students' concerns that the current policy is overly punitive and potentially dangerous.
The language of the new policy is still in the works, but the committee has finalized its basic principles. While it will not go as far as offering a full amnesty program for students who violate alcohol regulations, the policy will incorporate a forgiveness option.
The administration at the start of this year announced a new alcohol policy intended to tackle the perceived rise in dangerous drinking on campus. The policy immediately placed first-time underage offenders on level-one disciplinary probation (pro-one) instead of continuing the previous practice of first issuing them a warning.
Many students raised concerns that the policy's more severe disciplinary measures would deter students from seeking medical assistance from Tufts Emergency Medical Services (TEMS), with dangerous repercussions for students' safety.
Some also questioned its effectiveness, noting that a purely disciplinary change failed to address the real issue at hand — the need for a shift in cultural and societal norms on campus.
The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate in November passed a comprehensive resolution calling on the university to amend the policy, proposing that first offenders be given the chance to avoid being put on pro-one by completing an alcohol education program.
The resolution further called for the university to explore other means to combat the drinking culture on campus, emphasizing preventative measures over punitive ones.
The newly announced changes closely mirror the Senate's proposal. They continue the practice of putting first-time offenders on pro-one but allow for the probation to be dropped down to a warning if the student meets certain requirements, including the completion of a counseling program.
"We're acknowledging student input, looking at the policy and reviewing it, changing it in the direction that students wanted," Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman said. "The steering committee is putting in place not quite a full amnesty program but a forgiveness option allowing probationary status to drop back to a warning level."
Outgoing TCU President Brandon Rattiner, a graduating senior, believes that the newly announced policy strikes a balance between being both effective and reasonable.
"I think the policy is one of the most fair for students that just make a mistake and don't have any real alcohol problems … and also in being … responsible to students who are consuming alcohol in a way that most Tufts students would not be OK with," Rattiner said.
Rattiner praised the committee — of which he is a member — for its willingness to reconsider and amend the policy.
"I think the conversations that we've been having are definitely a step in the right direction," he said. "It shows that the administration is committed to making sure students are safe in their alcohol consumption."
Reitman noted that although this year's policy change may not have been perfect, it was useful in raising awareness about an issue that needed discussion.
"This year's policy was a good thing, even if what it did was focus enough attention on the issue of dangerous drinking … There were a lot of events and milestones during the year where the dangerous use of alcohol was being discussed by students more than ever before, and now we have a resolution about it after long debate," he said. "However we got to this point, I think it's worth it because it raised awareness about the level of dangerous drinking."
Concerns that the policy would discourage students from calling TEMS appear not to have been borne out in initial statistical data.
The number of alcohol-related TEMS calls this year increased by approximately 24 percent, up to 97 from 78 last year, according to TEMS Advisor Geoffrey Bartlett, who is also technical services manager for the Department of Public Safety.
Reitman said that it was possible that in bringing the issue of dangerous drinking into the spotlight, the changes to the alcohol policy that were implemented this year actually encouraged students to seek medical help from TEMS for their friends.
"The dramatic predictions that some had made … are disproven, and I'm glad of that because the primary issue is the safety of others," Reitman said. "I think that more people actually called TEMS because they were aware of how dangerous binge drinking can be."
Bartlett cautioned that it was difficult to identify the factors behind this increase and to draw any conclusions about it, especially because the data set is small and requires a more thorough investigation.
Reitman agreed, noting that many factors come into play with regards to TEMS calls, including students' willingness to seek aid and the degree of dangerous drinking taking place on campus.
"Clearly students are still calling about their friends when they think they're in danger, and that's a good thing," he said. "Whether the percentages of students who actually make those calls are up or down depends on how much dangerous drinking is going on."
Bartlett and Reitman both highlighted that, despite the rise, the number of calls this year is still within the range of that of the past six years.
"No matter what the policy has been — and it's been tweaked any number of times — the number of calls have remained between the range of 70 and 100 every year," Reitman said. "This isn't so statistically different."
Harrison Jacobs contributed reporting to this article.
