General Congress 11/30/15 1. Res Life/Alcohol policy a. Hope’s number one concern is that Hope students come home safely, however, the alcohol policy can be interpreted that your body is considered a container if necessary (if you come home and cause a disturbance). 2. Kristyn Bochniak and John Jobson (handout) a. Addressing Situations Involving Students Suspected of Being under the Influence of Alcohol On­Campus i.
Purpose: To establish a consistent response to potentially dangerous and/or illegal student behaviors involving the use of alcohol that balances care for the student and ensures community safety. ii.
When students have been drinking, they should be documented, however, unless they have been disruptive, they will not go through the judicial process. Disruptive here generally means they are in violation of another policy (visiting hours, quiet hours, sports in the hallway, alcohol in the res halls, starting a fight, etc.) 1. We would like to implement a Good Samaritan policy a. When you are helping a friend (being a “good samaritan”), you will not have a judicial consequence. You could still go through the judicial process, and receive the help that they can give you, but you would not receive the consequence. b. We would be interested in Student Congress working with us to help develop this policy. c. This would be to include anyone involved in the situation (the helper and the student in need of assistance) 2. We would like to find the best way to help students on Hope’s campus help each other and always come home safely. 3. Questions: a. When are parents contacted? i.
In instances where students violate the college’s drug or alcohol policy, the college is permitted to contact the parents of the student. 1. We try to keep this to only when the student is hospitalized or is to the point where they could/should be hospitalized. ii.
Students have a choice in contact (which parent, how, etc) so that the students can talk to the parents prior to the contact. b. Can we better define the “safe place” RAs often describe the res halls as? i.
We want students to come back to their res halls, and being documented is for their safety and is used only when consistent incidents occur. (if not in violation of other policies) c. What is the difference between being documented and going through the judicial process? i.
Documentation is writing down the incident, these go to the res life staff (RDs), only if a policy violation occurred will the documentation go to the judicial process (Dr. Jobson, Mrs. Bochniak, and the rest of the Residential Life staff) d. If someone is drinking and comes into the res hall and gets documented ­ what is considered disruptive? i.
The documentation part is supposed to be for the care of the student, the RAs simply pass the documentation up, where it is determined if it will go to judicial review. ii.
Perhaps the RAs could clarify the difference between getting documented and going through the judicial process. e. Is clarification happening? How are we taking care of the discrepancies? f. To avoid RA vs students scenarios across campus, can we improve consistency between RAs and between halls? i.
It’s difficult with so many RAs across campus, but we can definitely stress it with the res life staff. 4. Icebreaker ­ what or who is your spirit animal? 5. Ad hoc committee for a conversation with Dr. Jobson and Mrs. Bochniak about the alcohol policy and the good samaritan policy a. Sign up sheet ­ If you missed signing up at Congress, email Andrew. 6. Prayer 7. Committee updates a. Julia ­ Admissions and Financial Aid committee: Admissions letters were sent out last week (2100 accepted and 200 waitlisted, 70% expected to admit). Data compilation on first year courses, and programs/departments recruiting processes. b. Vanessa/Joe ­ Residential life: Poster policy in halls and around campus (will be distributed soon) and students who are not uninvolved. Alcohol policy ­ container definition is not in the handbook, we are drafting what that could look like (email Joe or Vanessa if you have input). c. Jean Luc: Email meeting: Ski club wanted to become an official club on campus (went through budget, rules, regulations, etc.) ­ we approved their request to move on to Residential Life board. We also discussed bulletin boards around campus and how we can implement a better policy for what is posted on the boards (Hope community members would be permitted to post flyers, but would need to get them approved). 8. Task Force Updates a. Shiku ­ Strengths and Leadership meeting after general congress b. Gaby ­ Dance Marathon is having spaghetti fundraiser tomorrow in the kletz c. Spencer/Rose ­ Campus relations/Internal Strengthening: We will be setting up a Christmas tree in the MMR, you will receive an email with the date/time. (Both task forces please meet after the meeting) 9. Old Business a. None 10. New Business a. None 11. Don’t forget that Freshman Representative Elections are next week, applications are due Wednesday!