Forwarded from an HC friend who's on faculty at Penn

Colleges & Universities A-Z Haverford College
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<p>Honor Code:
1) students taking responsibility 2) Trust from the administration</p>

<hr>

<p>Copyright 2006 Daily Pennsylvanian via U-Wire
University Wire</p>

<p>January 24, 2006 Tuesday</p>

<p>SECTION: COLUMN</p>

<p>LENGTH: 780 words</p>

<p>HEADLINE: Partying like it should be</p>

<p>BYLINE: By Cezary Podkul, Daily Pennsylvanian; SOURCE: U. Penn</p>

<p>DATELINE: PHILADELPHIA </p>

<p>BODY:</p>

<p>Last week, I argued that the University's overbearing alcohol guidelines and monitoring for registered parties are creating an unacceptable safety gap between registered and un-registered parties. This week, I would like to propose a solution to this problem: Quaker Bouncers.</p>

<p>Jeff Millman, a senior at Haverford College, came up with the brilliant insight that the best people to monitor student parties are students themselves. This idea became the cornerstone of Millman's not-for-profit party monitoring organization, known as "Quaker Bouncers." Its mission is to cut down on the amount of alcohol-related incidents on campus as well as decrease the damage done to the campus during parties. </p>

<p>They've done a great job of doing precisely that. Since Haverford instituted the Quaker Bouncers program in the spring of 2005, the number of alcohol-related incidents reported at Haverford, which had been on the rise in recent years, decreased from 27 to four in one semester.</p>

<p>"I'm very glad that they are there because they are our extra ears and eyes. As students, they get access to places that it would be difficult, if not impossible, for our alcohol monitors to get to," said Tom King, the director of security and safety at Haverford.</p>

<p>Small wonder, then, that the Quaker Bouncers have been so successful at reducing the frequency of incidents related to alcohol.</p>

<p>Their recipe for success is very simple -- so simple, in fact, that Penn could easily replicate it.</p>

<p>First, Millman recruits students who, like to party like he does and thus know how to recognize unsafe behavior or when someone's drank too much.</p>

<p>The recruits then go through extensive training with the head of security and the dean of student life at Haverford, as well as a seminar on how to spot signs of alcohol poisoning.</p>

<p>Furthermore, each Quaker Bouncer is given a radio transmitter with a direct link to Haverford Security, so that, in case of trouble, help can arrive on the spot in minutes.</p>

<p>"Their response time to emergencies is phenomenal," Millman said.</p>

<p>Best of all, the Quaker Bouncers are a free service to the students who request their help since the organization is funded by Haverford student activity funds.</p>

<p>As a result, Haverford students aren't afraid to call the Quaker Bouncers to help ensure a safe party environment. Why? Because, unlike Penn alcohol monitors, who come to parties clipboard-in-hand, ready to write-up fraternities and other host organizations for the smallest infraction, the Quaker Bouncers come to parties with only one goal in mind: ensuring a safe party atmosphere.</p>

<p>"The hosts know that we're not there to enforce rules, but to make sure that everyone's safe," Millman said, "and because of that, we are generally well-received by the hosts, who trust us and ask for our services."</p>

<p>Could you ever imagine a fraternity at Penn calling up Larry Moses and his legions from the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs to ask them to come over and check out the unregistered party to make sure everyone is safe?</p>

<p>Of course not -- precisely because there is such an adversarial relationship between alcohol monitors at Penn and host organizations.</p>

<p>"At Haverford, we do not require students to register parties with us," King said.</p>

<p>Hence, there's no rift between safe and unsafe parties at Haverford. Through the Quaker Bouncers program, Haverford does its best to ensure that every party is a safe party, unlike Penn, which vouches for registered events but just flat out doesn't care about what happens at the unregistered parties.</p>

<p>The solution is thus obvious: The Penn Quakers need to get some Quaker Bouncers so that the rift between safe and unsafe parties can be bridged.</p>

<p>Penn has all the right ingredients for creating its own batch of Quaker Bouncers: a Student Activities Council willing to dole out money for worthy causes, entrepreneurial students who'd be willing to take up the initiative and put it on their resumes and plenty of party-goers who'd love to earn money while ensuring a safe environment for their peers.</p>

<p>The major obstacle, however, is that the University administration would have to embrace a realistic approach to alcohol policy: they'd have to learn to think of Penn students not as children but as responsible young adults who can be trusted to monitor their own parties using this system.</p>

<p>Right now, that's far from the status quo.</p>

<p>"There has to be a balance between alcohol rules, freedom and oversight," King said.</p>

<p>And the Quaker Bouncers provide that balance.</p>

<p>Let's hope then, for safety's sake, that OFSA and the Office of Alcohol Policy and Initiatives will someday be as forward-looking as Haverford's administrators.</p>

<p>(C) 2006 Daily Pennsylvanian via U-WIRE</p>

<p>LOAD-DATE: January 24, 2006</p>

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<p>True...my D, who is a sophomore this yr, served as a Quaker Bouncer last spring. It worked beautifully.</p>

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<p>Hi</p>

<p>i love both haverford and swarthmore and they are my top choices for different reasons. :) i found it interesting that both threads are currently discussing alcohol policy... swarthmore's a little more intensely given its recent troubles. i was wondering about haverford's Quaker Bouncers and swarthmore's party associates as both sound like good ideas.</p>

<p>HC Alum suggested that it resulted from the honor code and Interested dad thinks swarthmore came up with the idea first. i was wondering what makes them similar/different?</p>

<p>thanks</p>

4

<p>"wok the line"... that's really cute-</p>

<p>I agree with “Interested Dad” on the Swat post. Student monitoring is a very good idea, and as a result, colleges with smart and thoughtful kids may just come up with the idea locally… although collaboration and the sharing of ideas between colleagues provides important perspectives and should be respected and encouraged.</p>

<p>I can understand applicants enjoying college comparisons and things like that but I think we should maybe take the discussion on alcohol policy a little more... umm... don't take this in the wrong way... sensitively? afterall, we’re talking about people’s safety and the potential for violence, date rape, injury and death.</p>

<p>Finally, as a researcher, I would caution students about simple numerical comparisons between colleges, as they do not take context into consideration. For example, a swat post mentioned that ‘Haverford has/had more problems with alcohol related issues in the past’ citing a time period with 27 incidents compared to swat with far fewer. I don’t know the details of these events but, when I was a student, many of the alcohol related cases were due to non-tri co students coming to HC to party… as other local colleges, such as Villanova, Harcum, ect, are dry campuses. Swarthmore is not on the Mainline and has no other colleges close by so the straight out comparison between the two can be inappropriate in this matter. This is not to say that Haverford students are beyond repute and don’t get into trouble, because unfortunately, academic ability and extra-curricular prowess don’t immediately translate into social skills and common sense… here and anywhere else. Again, just be careful with the numbers thing as nothing is ever clear cut… except for the Amazon rainforest I guess.</p>

<p>I'm glad you've placed both HC and SC on the top of your college list. I think, they provide the most unique and distinctly challenging experiences among the LACs... of course, as my older sister went to bryn mawr and brother to swat, you can see why I'm so biased.</p>

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<p>Dear Artemis 112487, Interested Dad, HC Alum</p>

<p>thank you for your thoughtful replies. i regret that my 1st post was worded the way it was as i didn't mean to start a competition between the colleges.
i'm really impressed by the depth of thought and analysis on these threads as it probably reflects the intellectuality of sc and hc. wow. i'm learning a great deal already and i'm not even a sc/hc student and on campus yet! I love LACs and think its wonderful that modest experiences at hc/sc can inform bigger step-siblings in the ivy league who may get more public recognition. I feel bad for the penn students who feel their alcohol policy treats them "like children" but, given Penn's size, i don't think that they would be able to pull off a quaker bouncer (or party associate program) as successfully as they don't have the same respectful community feel.</p>

<p>thanks</p>

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<p>as a hopeful penn undergrad next fall, i just have to say...</p>

<p>no need to feel bad for Penn...</p>

<p>no school is perfect... what penn's administration lacks, the school makes up in diversity, academic resources and cosmopolitan vibe. </p>

<p>it's only the Penn drunks and lushes who have to worry about being treated like children.</p>

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<p>are you kidding? the quaker bouncers was a failure. millman resigned after the "organization" received heavy scrutiny for xenophobic and allegedly racist tendencies.</p>

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<p>All I know about the Quaker Bouncers is what my Penn professor friend sent me.</p>

<p>You said "was a failure"... As the Penn article was written maybe 2 weeks ago, did you mean "was" or "is a failure"? Is this group still around or is it now defunct? </p>

<p>By "xenophobic", I imagine you are referring to a concern for non-tri-college students attending parties and not foreign students... as the latter would seem preposterous... and by "racist", I imagine you mean in reference to non-tri-college minority individuals attending HC parties as well? Don't take this the wrong way, but internet anonymity and passion are no excuse for flip remarks... especially when it comes to charged topics like race. Be careful how you choose your words and make sure they convey your thoughts accurately. </p>

<p>If what you say is true, the "failure" is a little bit unfortunate but the significance of the post is still valid. It's not whether something is a success or a failure that is important (especially in college because it is a rare time in your life for true experiemntation without significant "consequences"), but rather the Quaker Bouncers is one example of how students feel that they are able to and are given the freedom to act by the administration to govern themselves. As in Penn's case, it seems the administration there is viewed a little less kindly.</p>

<p>I don't expect every or even most HC student led campaigns to bear edible fruit and be successful, but the promise is in the attempt. Honestly, "so what if things didn't work out as initially planned?" If you only acted when you were sure of success, society would be paralyzed. I'm still proud of the bouncers in that it shows a lot of leadership and ingenuity on the part of students. Also, I have every confidence that the students, if they feel there is some merit with this group, to analyze the problems, its past mistakes and evolve it to a more functional entity.</p>

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<p>actually, the accuser, a haverford student, used the words "xenophobic" and "racist" in his complaints against the bouncers (on the go boards). naivemelody's remarks weren't flippant but just a direct reitteration of what actually was stated -- which of course does not mean imply that it was an accurate complaint to begin with. </p>

<p>jeff millman, however, did not resign after the allegations. he stood up for the bouncers and held several discussion sessions regarding the situation. he eventually did hand over power but only because he left campus to study abroad.</p>

<p>now, i don't normally post on here anymore, but jeff happens to be a friend of mine and i have a lot of respect for what he has done for the school.</p>

<p>edit : also the quaker bouncers weren't all together a failure. while they came under a lot of scrutiny, they are still functioning.</p>

10

<p>wow. this haverford site is getting BIZ-ZAY!
i think that if someone uses the terms 'racist' and 'xenophobic', it really needs to be qualified as it would be irresponsible not to do so. you can't just throw those words out there like that... like grenades.... and expect non haverford people to figure out what the person meant.
ok. so the qb have problems... fine. the class of 2010 will just have to figure them out as it seems like a good idea to me still.</p>