College plans to limit funds for Green Team
The administration will no longer provide funding for “party packs,” which consist of water and bread sticks, at unregistered events.
By Matthew Mc Nierney, The Dartmouth Staff
Published on Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Starting Tuesday, the College will no longer provide funding for Green Team sober monitors or “party packs” — consisting of water and bread sticks — at events that are not registered with the College, according Justin Anderson, Director of Media Relations for the College.
Anderson said the new policy was enacted in order to reduce “confusion among students” about the College’s policy on Green Team and unregistered events.
The new policy is an “unfortunate” departure from previous College policy, under which the College provided funding in a lump sum based on Green Team’s cost estimates, regardless of whether events monitored by Green Team were registered, former Green Team co-chair Charlotte Cipparone ’12 said.
Green Team, a student-run organization founded in February 2011, provides sober monitors at campus parties to combat high-risk drinking, as well as food and water to help mitigate the effects of heavy drinking.
The College cannot adequately reduce harm at events that are not registered, Anderson said.
“We can only put forth our best effort in harm reduction for drinking and sexual assault when we know that there is an event,” he said. “It gives us more information to potentially use to try to make student life as safe as possible.”
Because Green Team is a student-run organization, the new policy does not affect what events the group is allowed to monitor and cannot prevent organizations from requesting Green Team monitors, for unregistered events at their own expense. The College will continue to provide funding for Green Team’s services at registered events, Anderson said.
“The College wants to help students who are playing by the rules and adhering to policy and procedure in their efforts to reduce harm,” he said.
In addition to the change in the Green Team funding policy, the College has made it easier for organizations to register events over the summer when many students are under the legal drinking age.
Although registering an event was “virtually impossible” last summer, organizations can now register events with a “limited” amount of alcohol proportional to the number of students above the age of 21 that are expected to attend the party, according to Anderson.
“During Summer term, when most of the students who are on campus are under 21, it’s unusual for there to be a party with enough students over the age of 21 to have a serious amount of alcohol,” he said.
The new policy will affect Green Team’s ability to manage risk at Dartmouth parties, according to Cipparone. Green Team depends on both the willingness of campus organizations to host them as well as the administration’s support, she said.
“It’s really unfortunate,” Cipparone said. “This is a big blow to Green Team.”
Removing funding from Green Team to monitor unregistered events may result in less effective harm reduction at the riskiest events, she said.
“We wanted to cover specifically unregistered events because they can be more dangerous,” Cipparone said. “As a harm reduction initiative, I’m surprised that the College would want to reduce its support to Green Team.”
Victor Hollenberg ’14, one of the summer executives for Green Team, and Sam Waltemeyer, coordinator of Greek Letter Organizations and Societies’ educational and leadership initiatives, declined to comment for this article.
Coordinator of the Alcohol and Other Drug Education Program Brian Bowden and Green Team founder Jeffrey Millman Tu’12 could not be reached for comment by press time.
Green Team has always been somewhat wasteful in my view but covering unregistered events was probably one of the best aspects of the group.
It seems as if the college is going out of its way to become less forward thinking on things ranging from dining to alcohol safety.
By Anonymous on Jul 17 | 6:54 am
This policy punishes Houses that hold smaller events that don’t require registration. SEMP rules don’t require registration for events with under 50 people. Events with less than 50 people can still have people in need of sober monitoring. These Houses ARE playing by the rules, they’re adhering to policy and procedure, and if they’d like a party pack or to have sober monitors to add safety, they should be treated the same way as a registered party.
By Anon on Jul 17 | 7:49 am
THIS IS SO DUMB
By Anonymous on Jul 17 | 9:11 am
I fear this will be counter-productive and lead to more unsafe underground drinking as will other proposed measures such as mandatory certified bartenders and increased S&S patrolling inside houses. I also would like to see far, far less drinking on campus, but the historic lessons of Prohibition should not be lost in working with the students – and one has to work with them and not dictate to them. Furthermore, announcing these policies while most of the students are away is likely to multiply the backlash.
Dimitri Gerakaris ‘69 Beta Alpha Omega House Advisor
By Dimitri gerakaris on Jul 17 | 10:17 am
Green team is one of the only positive and realistic things that exist that might actually help with drinking problems in Greek houses. It is something that Greek houses welcome and the administration (theoretically) mutually supports. To take this option away is yet another step in the wrong direction. This is unbelievable, yet somewhat unsurprising, considering said administration’s history of poor decision-making skills.
By Anonymous ‘12 on Jul 17 | 10:30 am
sometimes i wonder what the people making these decisions are thinking. Likely they are not thinking at all!
By Burt Dow Deep Water Man on Jul 17 | 11:33 am
Dean Johnson, JD and Carol Fault have yet again shown their incompetence when it comes to curbing excessive drinking. The Green Team is a shining star for the Dartmouth community and has done an incredible job ensuring students are partying in a safer environment. Propaganda director Justin Andersen is lying through his teeth when he says the College wants to reduce harm. My fraternity has already started discussing ways to circumvent Dean Johnson, JD’s new policies and not having Green Team at our unregistered events will encourage us to register fewer, not more events. Carol Fault will soon cause us to beg for the return of the Jim Crime regime!
By A Sad Day for Dartmouth on Jul 17 | 12:38 pm
In reply to Anon, at 7:49 am who said: “These Houses ARE playing by the rules, they’re adhering to policy and procedure, and if they’d like a party pack or to have sober monitors to add safety, they should be treated the same way as a registered party.”
Party Packs have only ever been available to Tier 2 and 3 parties, in other words if your party has over 150 students attending you are eligible for a Party Pack.
Would it be a good use of college money to give party packs to 20 or even 50 students hanging out and have Green Team there to “monitor” that group of students? Wouldn’t you then complain that the event didn’t NEED monitoring?
The only thing that has changed here is that the college will no longer pay for UNREGISTERED events. The college is only abiding by it’s own rules that events with alcohol should be registered.
Greek houses or other student orgs can register an event online (it takes less than a minute) and if they expect 150+ guests they can still get a party pack paid for by the college.
People need to take SOME responsibility and stop leaving everything to someone else to look after.
By Anonymous on Jul 17 | 2:45 pm
Johnson did the same thing at Colgate: out of the blue she ordered walk-throughs. No preliminary consultation with students. None. Funny enough, they really hated her in Hamilton, too.
By The Stupidity goes on and on and on Jul 17 | 4:28 pm
I heard that Jim Kim and his boys stole the copper plumbing fixtures and piping from the presidents house before they left and they had to cut these funds to pay for their replacement. They tried to tell Carol Folt that it was “rustic” not to have plumbing but she didn’t buy into it.
By Fred Lund on Jul 17 | 8:47 pm
Isn’t it convenient that Charlotte Johnson is rolling out all these policy changes just weeks after Travis Blalock ‘12 graduated? If he were still Dartmouth’s most infamous social activist, he would never stand for this. The big question is: Who is the next Travis Blalock? Who is going to man up and start a Facebook group raising awareness of these injustices? Who is going to send an open letter to Dean Johnson challenging her to a debate? And who, despite all odds, is going to call for Dave Newlove to finally resign from DDS? There is a little Travis Blalock in each of you.
By Who will step up? on Jul 17 | 9:13 pm
This new policy is, for lack of a better word, idiotic. I’m a grad student, and even though my days of heavier drinking may be behind me, in my experience it has always been the unsanctioned, unregistered events where the most high-risk drinking takes place. So if the administration is truly concerned about high-risk drinking, why implement this backwards policy?
By W.R. Benash on Jul 18 | 1:59 pm
I have a new book coming out soon that is centered around my Dartmouth Experience in the mid 70s. Because I struggled with alcohol before, during and after Dartmouth, I have pledged 20% of gross proceeds to support the Green Team, in order to help students help themselves and each other to avoid my sad circumstance. This move, however, makes me wonder if my effort is misdirected. Rick Spier D78
By Rick Spier D78 on Jul 18 | 3:21 pm
Not surprising that Johnson waited until the ‘12s left to implement this. The administration plays power games with the student body by rolling out big changes just when there are no students on campus to oppose it. This change violates the founding principles of the Green Team and I challenge its members and co-sponsors to withdraw their support until Parkhurst recognizes their error.
By Green Team Co-Founder ‘12 on Jul 19 | 12:57 am