THE OCCIDENTAL WEEKLY THE OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE SINCE 1893 Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Volume 132, Issue 8
www.oxyweekly.com
Volleyball Claims SCIAC, Advances to NCAA Tournament
Occidental Alcohol Enforcement Among Strictest in the Nation Ryan Strong
Giovanna Bettoli Jessie Altman (sophomore) and Madyson Cassidy (sophomore) celebrate after volleyball beat Cal Lutheran to win SCIAC. VOLLEYBALL Continues on Page 11
Green Bean Ups Sustainability Efforts
Chris Ellis Half of the Top 50 Colleges were randomly sampled and averaged. SCIAC institutions were decoupled. Occidental statistics are not averages. Large research institutions’ averages are not scientifically representable.
Hillary Alexander The student-operated Grean Bean recently hired environmental consultant Leslie Vankeuren, to help formulate ideas and initiate sustainability efforts for the business. The most visible of these changes is the composting program that the entire Johnson Student Center is taking part in. “Our basis, as in our name, is to be a model of sustainability on campus” Green Bean Sales Analysis Manager Chris Suzdak said. Through their collaboration with
Vankeuren, who spent fifteen years in the restaurant business and is now using this experience to aid local businesses to be more environmentally friendly, the Green Bean has been working on a variety of efforts. One currently under way is the reusable mug program, which gives students a twenty cent discount if they bring in their own reusable mug. Starting next semester the Green Bean will provide reusable cups, similar to the eco-clamshells in the Marketplace. When you are finished with your drink you simply return the cup, which is then washed for the next customer.
NEWS ................................... 3 OPINIONS ............................ 4 LETTERS .............................. 5
“We want to do anything to cut down on cup usage,” Suzdak said. Other sustainability efforts that the Green Bean currently takes part in include using non-bleached paper towels, purchasing products from local companies, making sure all packing material is compostable and using a majority of natural, bio-degradable cleaning products. Also, all utensils except for the straws are compostable. The Green Bean’s new composting GREEN BEAN Continues on Page 3
FEATURES ............................ 6 A&E ...................................... 8 SPORTS ................................. 10
The number of judicial referrals at Occidental for alcohol policy violations on-campus is nearly triple the average for Top 50 Liberal Arts Schools ranked by U.S. News according to Clery Act disclosures released this October. Amongst SCIAC colleges, Occidental’s 389 referrals for on-campus alcohol violations is more than seven times the 54 referral average for SCIAC institutions. Occidental’s referral rates have jumped considerably in recent years. The years 2006, 2007 and 2008 had 31, 70 and 31 on-campus alcohol referrals, respectively. In 2009, that number rose to 392. Campus Safety Director Holly Nieto explained the reason for the uptick in referrals from 2008 to 2009. “The dramatic change in stats for alcohol and drug violations is representative in improvements in enforcement and record keeping,” Nieto said to the Weekly last year. Some recent alumni noticed a definite change in Occidental’s approach to enforcing the alcohol policy and disciplining students for violations between 2008 and 2009. “They got extremely strict in 2009 and took an anti-alcohol stance,” Jarred Salha ‘10 said. “The no reentry rule just caused people to get smashed. The change in strictness actually had the opposite effect that they had hoped for.” Adam Dunbar ‘10 noted that higher enrollment means more students are going to drink and get in trouble for it, but he agreed with Salha that the administration began enforcing its alcohol policy a lot more aggressively in 2009. “They used to pour the alcohol, now they write you up,” Dunbar said. Administration officials, including Dean of Students Barbara Avery, say that they do not think Occidental students drink more than students at peer institutions. Instead, they attribute much of the high number of referrals to better reporting of disciplinary issues. A U.S. Department of Education webpage that displays referral stats for institutions includes a disclaimer that reads, “the crime data reported by the institutions have not been subjected to independent verification by the U.S. Department of Education. Therefore, the Department cannot vouch for the accuracy of the data reported here.” Avery did also say that the high numbers may be attributable to
more enforcement. “We’re getting more reports,” Avery said. “We’re encouraging students to look out for one another.” The strict enforcement has not curbed alcohol-related hospitalizations, evidenced most recently by Splatter, a school-sponsored dance in October, which brought a large amount of negative media attention to the college. Some students think that the College’s focus on discipline has actually exacerbated the binge drinking. “I think that the main problem is that it forces the drinking at Oxy underground which makes it immensely more dangerous,” Liz Wells (sophomore) said. “The RA is supposed to be the fail-safe but the RA can’t be there to stop bad things from happening in this system.” Last week, President Veitch disagreed with the idea that the administration’s policy is contributing to binge drinking and suggested that the administration may need to step up its discipline. “If we have a zero-tolerance policy and it’s not working, then what more can one do short of ratcheting up the consequences on the students that are involved?” he said. Wells disagrees with Veitch. “Its obvious that it is the severity of the policy that is not working, so why would you make the policy more severe when the severity is the problem?” Wells asked. Harvard Lecturer and Principle Investigator for the Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study Henry Wechsler has conducted numerous studies on binge drinking in college settings. One entitled “Alcohol Policy Enforcement and Changes in Student Drinking Rates in a Statewide Public College System: a follow-up study” tracks the relationship between alcohol policy and binge drinking. “Study findings suggest that stronger enforcement of a stricter alcohol policy may be associated with reductions in student heavy drinking rates over time. An aggressive enforcement stance by deans may be an important element of an effective college alcohol policy,” Wechsler’s study concluded. Wechsler also suggested that other factors, like environment and education, may be even more important. “While I favor approaches that ALCOHOL Continues on Page 3
The Occidental Weekly is recyclable.