The number of lessons incoming freshmen at Binghamton University need to learn went up by one with this year’s implementation of Alcohol.Edu, a three-hour online course that teaches the risks and the rules of drinking at BU.
But what some freshmen may not have realized was that failure to complete the course would result in judicial probation, which became a reality for some 200 students who didn’t complete the course, according to Rodger Summers, BU’s vice president for student affairs.
At Monday’s Student Assembly meeting, a resolution was passed to take a stance against mandating Alcohol.Edu for freshmen and against the imposition of penalties on those who do not complete it. The resolution, authored by Hinman Community Representative Eric Katz, called placing students on judicial probation an “improper action by the administration.”
According to Katz, the idea for the resolution came when he heard that another representative, Polina Schwartzman, had been placed on probation because her name had been misspelled on the campus roster and she had failed to receive the e-mail. Schwartzman was then placed on judicial probation without her knowledge.
“After that I decided we needed to come up with a strong policy,” Katz said.
He added that he feels the program should be available to freshmen, as the resolution states, as an optional course with rewards for those who choose to take it, rather than penalties for those who don’t.
“Plenty of people just put on music and played solitaire while they clicked through the program,” he said. “I don’t think these types of programs make a dent in what’s going on.”
But Rodger Summers, who was instrumental in getting Alcohol.Edu off the ground here at BU, said that he has received positive feedback on the program and intends to continue to mandate the course for incoming freshmen.
‘We are moving forward with this because we feel so strongly about the safety of our students,” he said. “We felt that it was essential to offer this in terms of giving more information for [students] to make more sound decisions regarding their drinking behavior if they choose to drink.”
Summers said that the implementation of the course was a response to a mandate from former SUNY Chancellor Robert L. King to all SUNY schools to create more alcohol education programs, in light of of the number of students who were being harmed by alcohol.
In response to the contention that students were unaware that they had to complete Alcohol.Edu, Summers said that he went to all but one of the summer 2005 orientations and told students and parents that the course would be required. Students were also notified through their campus e-mail.
However, Katz and other Assembly members feel that the method by which students receive information about the course is part of the problem.
“A lot of freshmen just don’t check their campus e-mail,” Katz said.
Summers said that the administration would look into “better ways of doing it.”
There are only around 65 remaining freshmen who have not completed the course and 1800-plus who have, and the remaining students are currently being contacted “personally,” Summers said.
“We will take it out of their file once they have finished it,” he said.
But until the students have completed the course, according to Summers, there will be an “administrative hold” placed on their records.
The resolution that was passed was presented to Gerry Johansen, a key member of the Alcohol and Other Drugs Committee (formerly the Alcohol Task Force), by Chris Motley, who is one of three students sitting on the committee.
Motley said that while there are no plans in the works for rewarding students who choose to take Alcohol.Edu, the committee is working toward making the process run more smoothly.
Motley said that while he agrees that judicial probation is a harsh penalty, he believes that the intent behind implementing the policy was good, adding that other, larger schools are beginning to mandate programs similar to Alcohol.Edu, further validating the merits of the program.
“They really don’t want to put kids on probabtion,” he said. “It’s the program’s first year and they are just going with the bumps in the road.”