Intoxication Is J-Board Offense
BY ALYSON DAME AND NICK STILLMAN

Public intoxication has always led to severe embarrassment. Friends, acquaintances and strangers scoff at you the next morning, filling in the gaps of a night you won’t fully remember for at least a few days. Tuesday, the General Faculty voted to promote an intoxication policy designed to sway students from indulging in such nights.
The new addition to the College’s alcohol policy ensures that students found to be abusing alcohol will immediately receive appropriate counseling and medical attention, if necessary. 
The idea for the policy upgrade originated in the Committee on Alcohol and Other Drugs and was later passed by Senate. When the Student Life Committee failed to pass it, the administration revised the policy and it passed easily in Senate, Student Life and the GF.
One major change in the revision is the explicit definition of the phrase “severe intoxication.” The new policy defines it as “[that] which may be reasonably judged to represent significant potential harm to self.” It continues to list the indications of severe intoxication as stumbling or falling while standing or walking, unawareness of surroundings, the inability to recall basic personal information, vomiting or unconsiousness.
“We wanted to avoid a policy that was potentially ambiguous on the definition of intoxication,” Dean of Students Peter Goldsmith said.
Associate Dean of Students Bill Stackman agreed, pointing out the need for a direct referral to alcohol abuse. “We noted that we didn’t have anything addressing intoxication,” he said. 
First-time offenders of the revised alcohol policy will be required to undergo evaluation by an alcohol support team. Moreover, the policy includes a Good Samaritan clause. In instances where a student calls Safety and Security to assist an intoxicated student, neither the individual nor the intoxicated student will be charged with alcohol policy violations.
Stackman said the revised policy is not all that different from one that was already in place. “What’s interesting is that the policy puts into words what we already do,” he said. “It would not make a difference if the person was under or over 21. What we’re suggesting in this policy is consistent with what we already do.”
Stackman continued to say that students shouldn’t assume the revised policy is designed to persecute them. “If you’re highly intoxicated one time, you’re not going to go to J-Board,” he said. “In some cases there is other stuff going on and I try to support them. It’s just an opportunity to check in with a person and provide them with support.”
Goldsmith praised the new policy for its focus on the health and safety it promotes among the student body, saying, “I believe that the intention of [the Committee on Alcohol and Other Drug’s] was to add to a highly legalistic policy in ways that would be far more focused on health issues.”