<p>The madness continues:
<a href="http://www.williamsrecord.com/wr/?sawContrib=yes&view=article§ion=news&id=9242%5B/url%5D">http://www.williamsrecord.com/wr/?sawContrib=yes&view=article§ion=news&id=9242</a></p>
<p>of course, Wesleyan has a student blog -- how do you think I found out about what happened at Williams?:
<a href="http://wesleying.blogspot.com/2007/10/williams-poogate-continues.html%5B/url%5D">http://wesleying.blogspot.com/2007/10/williams-poogate-continues.html</a>
<a href="http://wesleying.blogspot.com/2007/10/1-lac-****s-all-over-itself-literally.html%5B/url%5D">http://wesleying.blogspot.com/2007/10/1-lac-****s-all-over-itself-literally.html</a></p>
<p>"The madness continues"</p>
<p>Do you really believe fewer than 3 incidents of urinating or vomiting "outside a toilet" occurred on any other campus in the US this past weekend? -- from The Record article linked to above: "Students left three more messes that required bio-cleanups this weekend" </p>
<p>Another poster was correct in stating that, at other colleges, it's all in a day's work for the custodial staff -- and not given the special designation of "biocleaning."</p>
<p>
[quote]
Another poster was correct in stating that, at other colleges, it's all in a day's work for the custodial staff -- and not given the special designation of "biocleaning."
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</p>
<p>I suspect that the custodial staff rebelled against the frequent cleaning up these messes, resulting in the designation of the clean-up process as "biocleaning" and the availability of extra compensation for the staff handling the clean up. That would imply that the frequency of these occurrences (and the failure of students to clean up after themselves) is out of the ordinary and not comparable to what goes on at other colleges.</p>
<p>"That would imply that the frequency of these occurrences ... is ... not comparable to what goes on at other colleges."</p>
<p>I don't believe that's true, nor has it been proven. The situation is receiving more publicity at Williams. Do you have statistics from the Facilities department at any other college? (It's also been posted that other colleges may not even keep such separate statistics.)</p>
<p>Also you need to take into account that many of the hazards have come from the althletes and visitors from other schools, like Dartmouth............you must be greatly mistaken to think that this reflects Williams College as a whole</p>
<p>
[quote]
I don't believe that's true, nor has it been proven. The situation is receiving more publicity at Williams. Do you have statistics from the Facilities department at any other college? (It's also been posted that other colleges may not even keep such separate statistics.)
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</p>
<p>It's likely that you don't hear about this activity at other schools because it's not an issue. They're keeping stats at Williams because it's a problem. And And Williams is not more forthcoming about it problems than its peer schools as the smallest and most trivial problems get written up in school newspapers at the other NESCAC schools . .</p>
<p>I asked S about this. He said the majority of incidents were committed by non-Williams students from a frisbee tournament Williams hosted.</p>
<p>The students are very upset about outsiders coming and and affecting Williams' reputation and atmosphere, as is obvious from reactions on this thread.</p>
<p>BTW: My son does not drink at all and has many friends who don't either, whereas friend at Bates (freshman) has already been drunk.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Do you really believe fewer than 3 incidents of urinating or vomiting "outside a toilet" occurred on any other campus in the US this past weekend?
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</p>
<p>One of the three latest incidents involved excrement. I'm sure cleaning up vomit is a relatively common occurrence at colleges. Flinging poo in dorms? Not so sure that happens all that much elsewhere.</p>
<p>From the latest issue of the Williams Record:</p>
<p>
[quote]
Junior Advisors (JA) received an e-mail last Wednesday from Dean Merrill outlining a policy to deter them from purchasing alcohol for their underage first-years. The e-mail stated that JAs would be removed from their position after a second offense. These disciplinary sanctions troubled JAs, who have since declined to make any comment on the subject. </p>
<p>Recent incidents of student hospitalization due to alcohol consumption have worried administrators since the beginning of the school year. The current policy was launched following last weekend, during which five College students and one student from another school were sent to North Adams Regional Hospital (NARH) for excessive drinking. Thus last week’s e-mail not only detailed the consequences students will face for providing alcohol to minors, but also the College’s goal of tackling excessive drinking on campus. Strictly speaking, the policy stipulated in Merrill’s e-mail is not a new protocol, but a more formalized version of policies already in place. </p>
<p>While hospital visits and high blood alcohol content (BAC) levels are not uncommon at the College, numerous incidences of alarming BAC levels above .35, coupled with continued cases of biohazards, have heightened the administration’s sense of urgency in responding to the situation. </p>
<p>“To give you a sense of our weekends, we’re relaying ambulances from North Adams to campus,” said David Boyer, associate director of Campus Safety and Security, at the College Council (CC) meeting last Wednesday, which featured an open forum on bio-cleanups and alcohol. “This weekend we almost had to get an ambulance from two towns away. The officers are scared to death. It can’t get worse.” . .
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</p>
<p>Full article: <a href="http://www.williamsrecord.com/wr/?section=news&view=article&id=9222%5B/url%5D">http://www.williamsrecord.com/wr/?section=news&view=article&id=9222</a></p>
<p>"you don't hear about this activity at other schools because it's not an issue"</p>
<p>I wouldn't be so sure about that. I'm glad Williams is taking steps to recognize, publicize, and deal with the issue. Do you know of any campus where underage drinking doesn't occur?</p>
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wouldn't be so sure about that. I'm glad Williams is taking steps to recognize, publicize, and deal with the issue. Do you know of any campus where underage drinking doesn't occur?
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</p>
<p>The issue is not whether underage drinking occurs at other campuses but rather whether the abuse of alcohol is a more serious problem at Williams than it is at other similar schools. As I have said previously, all the NESCACs have school newspapers and most of those newspapers publicize the problems that take place at their school in great detail. Read any of them and you will see that there are not that many secrets with respect to on-campus behavior problems and issues. The feces spreading seems to be unique to Williams. And it's been well documented by Williams that the problems associated with alcohol abuse are serious as evidenced by the number of students that end up at the hospital with alcohol poisoning or similar problems.</p>
<p>"Read any of them and you will see that there are not that many secrets with respect to on-campus behavior problems and issues." </p>
<p>Did the Midd paper cite the <em>details</em> of the heavy drinking and "initiation rites" of the team that had its season cancelled?</p>
<p>"whether the abuse of alcohol is a more serious problem at Williams than it is at other similar schools." </p>
<p>Following a study conducted by outside educational consultants three years ago, as discussed at a Williams student council meeting Oct. 6, 2004: "the Alcohol Task Force and other students at the college met with the consultants. A consensus at the end of a lot of meetings between the students and the consultants was that the drinking culture here at Williams is not as bad as it is at other colleges." </p>
<p>Again, I must say that I applaud the Williams effort to publicize and deal with the issue. And, as others have noted, at least some of the excrement incidents are due to the actions of "visitors" -- and an overwhelming majority of the Ephs are not happy with the abuse occurring on campus.</p>
<p>I believe the editorial board of The Record recently said it much better than I could:</p>
<p>"we believe that the smartest applicants, the ones we want as Ephs, will understand a few things when they see these stories. First of all, Williams is not perfect. We have serious problems here that we need to address, as does every college in the nation. Perhaps more importantly, however, is the fact that the members of the College community have the integrity and grit to see their flaws depicted accurately, and respond by working to correct them." </p>
<p>Amen to that.</p>
<p>It's interesting that all of the current and graduated Williams students and parents, while personally offended and concerned, feel strongly that no one should cross Williams off his/her list because of the actions of a few socially bent individuals who may or may not even be students.</p>
<p>Conversely, those who are not Williams students or parents, and who are therefore not in a position to accurately gauge the situation, caution interested students to be "afraid, very afraid." </p>
<p>I'll say it again, bad things happen at good colleges, ALL of them. The bad thing may not be this particular bad thing but if you seek you will find something equally repellent. Human nature guarantees it.</p>
<p>Case in point: a couple of years back the local newpaper in a New England small town had a series of articles about a local woman who was running a sex-slave ring involving students at a nearby women's college. You can bet that wasn't a front page story at this otherwise "spotless" college's campus newpaper. I would guess that this incident, while sensational, didn't much impact day to day life on campus.</p>
<p>This is the part of Dean Merrill's statement that worried me:</p>
<p>
[quote]
The College recently met with its lawyers, after which the administration decided that immediate action was imperative. “The more we spoke with the lawyers, the less and less comfortable we became with students not being aware of the severe risks they face [if caught providing to minors],” Merrill said. “We had to have a statement regarding the legal dangers.”
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Once you start to try to define what level of alcohol accessibility is acceptable from legal standpoint you're really on a slippery slope. The bottom line is it is illegal for anyone under 21 to drink alcohol, at Williams, on any campus or anywhere in America. If you try to make distinctions -- it's okay as long as you don't provide it, it's okay as long as it's not in public, it's okay as long as it's not hard liquor -- you get hopelessly tangled in a legal spider web.</p>
<p>I think the Williams JA/entry system is one of the college's strongest points of distinction and I'd hate to see it dismantled or handcuffed by legal paranoia. (Though how much of this statement is a real warning and how much is legal CYA-ism remains to be seen.)</p>
<p>I like this suggestion The Record's editorial staff proposed in this week's edition:</p>
<p>"First Days should include a more hands-on alcohol education component, wherein JAs talk to their entries about the details of the physiological and psychological effects of drinking. Putting alcohol-body weight charts on entry walls is one thing; having an upperclassmen you respect look you in the eye and describe the effects of five quick shots of vodka on a 110-pound first-year is quite another."</p>
<p>I don't know. But I don't agree that it is the same everywhere. Dean Merrill has been quoted as saying the situation at Williams has been disproportionately bad this semester:</p>
<p>There are differences in how colleges handle drinking. While all schools prohibit underage drinking, there are definitely differences in how regulated legal drinking is and how strictly the rules are enforced. </p>
<p>Listen to the Amherst Dean of Students talk about alcohol and you'll get the strong impression that campus security does not go out looking to catch kids. They'll deal with flagrant violations, but in general it is kind of a laissez-faire policy. Sort of like the Pomona "red cup" rule:</p>
<p>By contrast, Middlebury has a lot of regulations for legal drinking. Campus security (and the local police) are proactive in enforcing the rules. One consequence has been a really significant reduction in the number of registered parties on campus:</p>
<p>Another consequence is some student unhappiness with the Middlebury social life. </p>
<p>You can make the case that stricter regulation and enforcement worsens the environment by driving the drinking underground. Kids "pre load", that is drink heavily in their dorm rooms before campus events. They also drink hard alcohol rather than beer (more kick for the buck and easier to conceal). Certainly you can get falling down drunk drinking from a keg, but it is a lot harder. I'd bet the kids being taken to North Adams Regional Hospital for alcohol poisoning have been drinking vodka or tequila, not beer. </p>
<p>Also if you keep the drinking underground, the school can't keep an eye on it and more easily identify the miscreants that are responsible for the vandalism and bio messes.</p>
<p>The number of registered parties at Midd may have dropped way off, ncram65, but my sense from my friends who go there (and from the Facebook photos posted by Midd students) is that there is a lot of drinking and that a good bit of it is pre-gaming the hard stuff. I'd be interested to know if you have a different impression. You went there, right? Maybe you've heard stories from Midd legacies who are there now.</p>
<p>On site from Williams: At Parents Weekend apparently drinking issue was addressed by prez. I didn't go because S had other things he wanted to do, and I'm allergic to serious, bureaucratic things.</p>
<p>Party hosted for entry (twenty kids on a floor who socialize together. College puts juniors in charge of creating collegiality, and in my son's entry this has worked beautifully.) Met other parents and kids. Kids were remarkably witty, stable individuals. Parents interested and involved.</p>
<p>Then we went to a magnificent concert given by many student music groups. S sang in choir which performed the last movement of Bach's B minor Mass -- give us peace (I know I'll make a mistake with the Latin.) These beautiful voices blending in a spiritual unity is what I'll remember about Williams and my visit here. S said, quoting West Wing, "When I sing Bach I feel like we stretch out our fingers and touch the face of God."</p>
<p>I really am not too worried about the campus culture at Williams.</p>
<p>farmfresh:</p>
<p>The point I was trying to make is that when the administration drives drinking way underground, as is the case at Middlebury, it results in drinking behavior (pre gaming, guzzling vodka) that is more likely to cause the kind of student behavior (trashed vending machines, messes in the halls and bathrooms) that most people condemn. If you let kids drink beer at a normal pace, they just won't get as drunk as they do when they have to do an entire evening's worth of imbibing in 30 minutes. </p>
<p>So I'm not surprised at all to hear that this sort of drinking behavior is common at Middlebury. I don't know if it is resulting in the sort of problems Williams is experiencing. I hope not. </p>
<p>What I have heard about Middlebury from a couple of kids there now and people I know in the administration (hardly a scientific survey I know) is that the all school parties are so regulated that they aren't fun at all.</p>