Dennis McDonald
Comments to the Student Senate,
Hanover College
September 24, 2003
Excerpts from the Original Document at Hanover College.
{1}I am here tonight to do several things: (1) to explain the change in procedures for the Assistant Deans (2) to listen to your concerns, (3) to answer your questions, and (4) to seek your help.
{2}Last year it became clear to me soon after taking this position as Dean of Students that there was a significant problem with excessive consumption of alcohol by some of the students on campus. A number of serious consequences of binge drinking occurred during the year including accident, violence, vandalism, sexual assault, and alcohol poisoning resulting in near death. It also became clear that enforcement of the College's alcohol policy was uneven across campus, with some places having good enforcement, and other places having little if any enforcement. It became clear that for the safety of our residents it was important to consider some changes in procedures for enforcement in the coming year.
{3}The change in procedures is not as dramatic as many may think. The changes have been made in an attempt to decrease the risks to our community from excessive drinking. The changes are: (1) Put into effect internal procedures to speed up the handling of judicial referrals so it would not appear that violating the alcohol policy had no consequences, (2) publishing in the Student Handbook guidelines for sanctions for alcohol violations so that there was consistency in those sanctions, and so everyone would know up-front what to expect for violating policy, and (3) having the Assistant Deans include all areas of the campus in their nightly rounds.
{4}As you know, there are rumors that much more than this is intended by these changes, and that much more has happened. I hope I can dispel those rumors here tonight. You can help me do that by, first, asking me for any clarifications of the changes that are needed, and second asking about rumors that you have heard. I have heard many of these rumors myself I am particularly interested to hear from people who have directly experienced or witnessed rumored incidents. It may not be appropriate for you to reveal the information here tonight because of not wanting to state confidential information publicly, but please come to me privately if you believe you have such information. I am no more interested in having some of the rumored events happening than you are, and if inappropriate events are documented, I will take appropriate action.
{5}In addition to the problems caused by excessive drinking, there is another problem that concerns me. Both the Principles of Hanover College and the Academic Vision Plan call for you, the students, to take increased responsibility for the functioning of the Hanover community, and to be personally and collectively accountable for your own actions and for the groups to which you belong. One of our changes, namely the increased responsibilities of the AD's, seems to move in the opposite direction. That bothers me as much as it does you, for many of you know how deeply I have been involved in the creation and implementation of the Vision Plan, and how strongly I support the Principles. I want you to know in unmistakable terms, that we collectively and collaboratively need to work together to achieve the ideals of the Principles. There are two aspects that are linked tightly together: responsibility and accountability. You students should accept joint responsibility with other community members (including us in Student Life) for setting and enforcing community standards. Coupled with that, we all must also be accountable to the community. Accountability means that we can demonstrate that the procedures for maintaining community standards are genuinely working, and if the procedures fail because of inadequate procedures or poor personal choices, we accept the consequences for our groups or ourselves.
{6}As I said in the open letter to the campus community, I invite all of you to participate in moving in this desired direction. You should organize yourselves, or take advantage of organization you already have (such as this Student Senate) to work with us in Student Life to create mechanisms for taking more responsibility and for demonstrating accountability. When we have established mechanisms that genuinely work to maintain agreed-upon community standards, we in Student Life will be pleased to be released from some of that responsibility.
. . . .
Questions and Answers:
{7}Are you (Dr. McDonald) trying to get the point across that students should play a more active role in the creation of a new policy?
Dr. McDonald's response: The policy should regulate itself, which includes the regulation by students. Community members must enforce the policy. It is the community members, which allow for a community to run smooth.{8}In looking at the language of the letter it appears to refer to excessive drinking as being the result of the number of violations.
Dr. McDonald's response: Dr. McDonald is not sure how tight the link is between excessive drinking and alcohol violations, but clearly there must be a link. As of right now Dr. McDonald is unaware of the statistics about whether there has been an increase in the number of serious consequences of excessive drinking. Dr. McDonald stated that Hanover has come too close to serious incidences occurring (including possible death) from excessive drinking. One of these incidences is too many.{9}Why was senate cut out of the decision to have AD's do campus- wide rounds? Why should senate accept this new policy?
Dr. McDonald's response: Dr. McDonald will guarantee that he will work in good faith to look for new ideas and to create the kind of procedures that we need to define community standards and how we are going to be accountable for community standards. The senate and the rest of the student body was not informed of the policy before hand because it was not discussed until the 21st of August. This was too late to effectively include student input.