News of special interest to Union families
Our daughter, Kate '06, figured that when she started her freshman year at Union, Mom and Dad would be totally out of the picture. Yes and no! We're comfortably at home, so Kate can have a wonderful academic and social experience. On the other hand, we've returned to the beautiful Union College campus several times as co-chairs of the Parents' Association. We're nearly invisible to Kate, yet our involvement with other parents and faculty has been very rewarding.
Most importantly, the
official stamp of approval is the publishing of a “Parents' Page” in Union College magazine. This is another opportunity to share news and information of interest specifically to parents. Some of that information will be included in our column and some will come in a partner column from the Dean of Students Office. Steve Leavitt, dean of students, and members of his team of administrators will touch on topics such as the Minerva System (formerly the House System), discipline, issues pertaining to first-year students,
the College's policy on alcohol, and so on-all issues about which the parents' community will
be glad to read. In addition, we will include contact information so you can follow up on whatever you need.
Also, we want to be sure that all parents know there is the Parents' Program Office on campus. Under the direction of Lis Bischoff-Ormsbee, this office is a place for parents to go for a variety of reasons: you might want to be more involved with the campus community (as we did), you might have a question and not know exactly who to ask, or perhaps you'll want to register for Spring Family Weekend. Feel free
to contact this office whenever you would
like at 518/388-6601 or
Parents_Program@
union.edu. Everyone is there to help!
Spring Family Weekend took place on May 7-9 and many parents turned out for the Steinmetz Symposium, Prize Day and other parent events including a Parents' Association Meeting and the Mother's Day Brunch. Please join us for the next big event which is Homecoming and Family Weekend. This will take place on October 1-3, 2004.
We would like to join Bill Gottdenker (Suzanne '05), chair of the Parents Fund, in encouraging any parent who hasn't already done so to participate in the fund. Participation at any level is a gesture that you appreciate the experience your student is having here at Union-it is not a request for an endowed scholarship (unless of course you feel so inclined). Last year, thirty-five percent of our current parents chose to give a gift and many
designated where they would like it to be used. (We're just closing out the 2003-04 Parents Fund and will share those figures in the fall.) Thanks in advance for considering this for the upcoming year!
Finally, there are a number of other ongoing initiatives that will continue to grow Union communication with parents. These will take the form of e-mail newsletters and events. Please feel free to join us at any of the Union events that are held in your home town/city. This is a wonderful way to meet other parents and hear more about what is happening on campus (or hear a professor or experience a wine-tasting event or…). And check our parents' web page at http://www.union.edu/Parents/. If you want to see what the students are involved in on campus, take a look at our new feature, “Your Kids in Action,” http://www.union.edu/Parents/action.php.
Feel free to join us on or off campus-we can't wait to meet you!
From Dean of Students Steve Leavitt
Revising our alcohol policy
Welcome to the first of what we hope will be a regular column from the Dean of Students office.
This month I want to talk about alcohol. Colleges everywhere have to wrestle with patterns of alcohol abuse among their students. The culture of what is often called “binge drinking” remains one of college campuses' most intractable problems. Union's student culture shares that interest in alcohol. In the past year, nearly seventy percent of reported disciplinary incidents at the College involved alcohol in some way. For that reason, I wanted to share with you some of our thoughts on where we stand and where we are headed.
Three years ago, as a part of the plan to diversify Union's social life, President Hull presided over a substantial revision of the College's policy on alcohol use. The new policy came into effect in the fall of 2001. It set in place new well-defined rules for hosting social events; these included wristbands for eligible drinkers and strict limits on the number of kegs allowed at parties.
Last fall, after hearing a number of concerns from students about features of the new policy, I decided it was time to assess its effectiveness. Students reported that the “party scene” on campus has been much more controlled, but that drinking in dorms has remained a concern. And our office has continued to encounter alcohol-related problems. I thought it best for students themselves to play a central role in considering any revisions in the alcohol policy, since they were the ones who knew best what worked and what did not. So I assembled a large Alcohol Task Force, with fourteen student members and six administrators. I invited students who I knew were centrally involved in the delivery of alcohol on campus; five were Greek, and five were from the Residential Life student staff.
The Alcohol Task Force became for me the most satisfying committee experience in my eleven years at Union. Nearly every member attended every weekly meeting. I asked each student to research the policy of a nearby peer institution, and each gave a report. We learned that Union's policy fit in well with what other colleges were doing. What made the group
work was the clear sense that everyone was thinking not about this or that pet concern, but about what was best for the Union community as a whole. And alcohol was clearly a topic these students knew something about.
The end result was some relatively minor revisions of what was, overall, already a strong policy. The Task Force recognized that drinking is an activity with many facets-it helps make events more fun, it smoothes social interactions, and it offers a clear context for trying to make an impression. It can be an escape, a crutch, an addiction. Symbolic dimensions of a policy can be as important as pragmatic ones. The overall message the Task Force sent out was that they, as students of Union College, sought a policy that promotes sensible, responsible drinking. Policy revisions relaxed some of the strict limits on beer to make large parties more workable but demanded stronger rules against hard liquor and underage drinking in the dorms.
Parties must serve real food. The Task Force also recommended new initiatives in alcohol awareness and counseling for students. And it asked for a new standing committee on alcohol and drug use. My hope is that the committee will help us to sustain our efforts in shifting the culture of drinking at Union onto an increasingly responsible plane.
My hope is that the Alcohol Task Force can become a model for further considerations of college policy on student life. It shows the insights students can have when working together for what is best for the Union community.
I close with a couple quotes from Task Force members:
“The process of revising our alcohol policy is never complete. This new policy represents the best efforts of this committee to evolve beyond the consumption of alcohol while also concentrating on the student body's wishes for a better social environment.”
-Dan Colish '04
“Union is not all about drinking. It's about a lot more as demonstrated by this policy and by the day-to-day events on this campus. Here is a policy that has taken into account student input and opinion, from Greeks to ResLife staff to other involved individuals.”
-Joanna Stern '06
“The College has given us as students the chance to have the kind of responsible social events we all want to have. It is up to us to act responsibly and maturely, in order to not jeopardize the policy for future students.”
-Evan Leibner '05
“Union's revised alcohol policy is engineered by the students to encourage a greater sense of community and responsibility.”
-Brian Kelley '04