2008 Woodie Awards
WSG examines off-campus alcohol policies
Jerica Harvey
Issue date: 11/7/07 Section: News
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Whitewater Student Government put forth legislation on Oct. 29 that may force UW-Whitewater to refrain from penalizing students who host parties that distribute alcohol.
Academic Affairs Director Justin O'Rourke took interest in developing this legislation when the issue was brought up last year in the WSG Presidential Campaign. The recent bust of a large-scale party on North Prairie Street pushed O'Rourke to attempt to change the interpretation of Chapter 17, Section 3 of the UW System Policy used to penalize students who sell or distribute alcohol.
The current policy states "The university may discipline a student in nonacademic matters in the following situations: (1) (a) For conduct which constitutes a serious danger to the personal safety of a member of the university community or guest."
Part of the legislation O'Rourke and other WSG members drafted states that this policy is vague and subject to interpretation.
"'Serious danger' can mean a lot of things," O'Rourke said. "Our university has used it to say that hosts of social gatherings off-campus are putting others in serious danger. It is my opinion that any adult student who attends an event is putting themselves in danger. But it's not even serious danger, it's more potential danger."
WSG clerk Max Taylor said he felt that large parties do create dangerous situations for students. He said there are risks that range from falling to a fire starting, and people are more apt to hurt themselves or even get killed.
O'Rourke said certain dangers are always a risk, such as fires and collapsing stairs, whether there is a social gathering or not.
The chapter does give examples of what it constitutes as serious danger. These include acts such as attacking or otherwise physically abusing, throwing dangerous objects, selling or delivering controlled substances, and removing or tampering with safety equipment such as fire alarms, fire extinguishers, etc.
An argument that O'Rourke made was that Chapter 17 and the Uniform Controlled Substances Act include illegal drugs only.
Academic Affairs Director Justin O'Rourke took interest in developing this legislation when the issue was brought up last year in the WSG Presidential Campaign. The recent bust of a large-scale party on North Prairie Street pushed O'Rourke to attempt to change the interpretation of Chapter 17, Section 3 of the UW System Policy used to penalize students who sell or distribute alcohol.
The current policy states "The university may discipline a student in nonacademic matters in the following situations: (1) (a) For conduct which constitutes a serious danger to the personal safety of a member of the university community or guest."
Part of the legislation O'Rourke and other WSG members drafted states that this policy is vague and subject to interpretation.
"'Serious danger' can mean a lot of things," O'Rourke said. "Our university has used it to say that hosts of social gatherings off-campus are putting others in serious danger. It is my opinion that any adult student who attends an event is putting themselves in danger. But it's not even serious danger, it's more potential danger."
WSG clerk Max Taylor said he felt that large parties do create dangerous situations for students. He said there are risks that range from falling to a fire starting, and people are more apt to hurt themselves or even get killed.
O'Rourke said certain dangers are always a risk, such as fires and collapsing stairs, whether there is a social gathering or not.
The chapter does give examples of what it constitutes as serious danger. These include acts such as attacking or otherwise physically abusing, throwing dangerous objects, selling or delivering controlled substances, and removing or tampering with safety equipment such as fire alarms, fire extinguishers, etc.
An argument that O'Rourke made was that Chapter 17 and the Uniform Controlled Substances Act include illegal drugs only.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
angelskiss2007
Kendra Rowland
posted 11/26/07 @ 4:59 AM CST
I just have to say this one thing: is this O'Rourke character blind? "But it's not even serious danger, it's more potential danger." Someone just played the stupid card. (Continued…)
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