On Nov. 14 of last year, DePauw welcomed Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller and Senator Jim Merritt to the Union Building Ballroom.
They presented on a new law called the "Lifeline Law", a public safety initiative established to help protect the Indiana under-21 community. The DePauw administration clearly supported the effort, shown by their endorsement of Zoeller and Merritt's visit to the DePauw.
Why then is the new Community Standards process directly opposing what the Lifeline Law seeks to accomplish?
During the 2012 Indiana legislative session, Merritt authored the Lifeline Law to protect Indiana students. The law's motto is "Make the call. Get help. Save a life.'" The law encourages Indiana residents to take the action necessary to save the life of someone in need of medical attention because of alcohol consumption. The law provides immunity for a bystander who calls 911 during an emergency.
According to the law's official website, "More than two dozen Hoosiers under the age of 21 have lost their lives due to alcohol poisoning since 2004 . . . Many of these deaths could have been prevented if bystanders sought medical attention."
The real meat of the law is the immunity it provides for the bystanders making the call. According to the Lifeline Law, any bystander under the age of 21 who is under the influence of alcohol will be given immunity from prosecution if they call 911 in an attempt to ensure that medical treatment is given to someone who is dangerously intoxicated.
Earlier this year, a freshman woman at Indiana University fell down a flight of stairs at a house party and passed away. The other partygoers, fearful of the consequences they might receive for providing the girl with alcohol chose to let the girl "sleep it off."
DePauw students can ill afford to succumb to the temptation of assuming a fellow student can "sleep it off." No matter what the circumstances are, saving a life should always be the first priority. Period.
DePauw's social scene revolves heavily around greek life. But by neglecting to allow greek chapters the same immunity for seeking medical help for endangered students the University is not standing with the ideals of the Lifeline Law.
Greek chapters are clearly not given the immunity promised to bystanders under the Lifeline Law. Instead, the chapters are being held entirely responsible for the hospital visits from their units. The Community Standards process disregards the message behind the law and the safety net it attempts to create.
At parties, chapters are now forced to weigh the options of personal safety for the intoxicated student and the safety of the house because of two different facets of the Community Standards process.
The first of these is the new change regarding how guilt in the system is perceived. In the past it was always based around the legal idea of "guilty beyond a reasonable doubt." Now the system follows the much more vague language of a "preponderance of evidence." The new system has interpreted this to mean, "We're pretty sure we think they are guilty, so they are guilty," instead of under the old system, "They are without a doubt guilty." The ethics behind this switch don't need to be explained. The change is simply wrong.
The other change obvious in the new system is the amount of trouble the chapters get in for a "preponderance of evidence" being reached. In the past, chapters would get a slap on the wrist unless the situation was serious enough to warrant more drastic action. Now, a common occurrence on DePauw's campus like underage drinking at a chapter house results in the house being put on crippling social probation. You can see the effect of this change by the actions of chapters at DePauw, when handling heavily intoxicated students at their houses.
Both of these changes, because they do not protect the chapters like the Lifeline Law calls for, go directly against what the law sought to protect: the life of a heavily intoxicated underage student. If DePauw doesn't change its stance on this issue, the University won't be pettily responding to a Princeton Review ranking. They'll be consoling a grieving family for the loss of their child.
- Small is a senior majoring in political science and history from Zionsville, Ind.