OSCA talks drugs

As alcohol abuse becomes more prevalent at Oberlin, efforts are being made to encourage discussion on all aspects of the issue, as well as that of other drug abuse. In order to facilitate some of this discussion, co-op area coordinator Tracy Murry has tried to bring students together to share their thoughts on any aspect of drug and alcohol use in a free-flowing, open-ended fashion.

Recently, concerns have been raised regarding the separate drug policies between the Oberlin Student Co-op Association and the rest of the college. According to Murry, the 1995 OSCA contract stipulated that the association should have its own independent alcohol and drug policy. It was felt that after examining the policy over the last few years, that it was unfair that a specific group of students were being asked to follow a different policy, and so the policy was dropped.

Now, the OSCA policy, which has been designed to educate members of co-ops about the issues, laws, and policies related to drug use and abuse, is similar to the College's. However, Murry says that in the three years he has been here, "the co-ops and the overall campus have never seen it this bad with alcohol" as they have this year. "Alcohol is the number one problem on campus," he said. In fact, a majority of Murray's calls have been alcohol related. Although it seems to be a campus-wide problem and OSCA hasn't had that many incidents lately, it has had some lately where students were brought to the hospital.

Attempting to create a dialogue on drug and alcohol usage, Murray sent an email about three weeks ago to everyone who is part of a housing co-op, asking if anyone was interested in coming to a meeting to discuss drug and alcohol use. He explained, "My intent was to leave it as open-ended as possible. I told students, you decide the agenda. Use it anyway you want. Basically, I'm only providing the space." If enough people are interested, he is trying to have something set up by Fall semester.

At the first meeting, participants talked about setting up some sort of committee or discussion group which students could participate in via e-mail. "Most people liked communication through e-mail," Murry said. After asking people through e-mail after the meeting if there were issues important to them or specific topics they'd like to see discussed in the future, Murry said one of the most common topics has been the idea of a substance-free space or a "wellness space." He added, "This is probably one area we try to discuss as a community. Most people are in agreement on it, there are just logistical things that need to be agreed upon."

Another important topic was providing information about how to know when someone has had too much to drink or is abusing alcohol. Murry said that OSCA ended up getting the same material that the College uses.

In spite of the rise of problems related to alcohol use, Murry said the committee was not set up in reaction to these events. Instead, it was set up as a way of providing information to students. He added that this isn't an attempt to stigmatize casual drinking, but rather a way to get people talking about responsibility when they talk about alcohol, saying, "No one wants to ban alcohol on campus."