THE FRIENDS GROUP Group Aims To Connect University Community, Deter Alcohol Use Students Encouraged To Invite Faculty to Game, Dinner or Yates By Kristen Wayne Hoya Staff Writer

Attempting to provide alcohol-free entertainment as well as encourage communication among various facets of the Georgetown community, The Friends Group, a committee of Georgetown students, faculty and administrators has sponsored several recent programs that offer alternative settings for student-faculty interaction.

The group recently gave out free tickets in Red Square to freshmen to attend the Georgetown men’s basketball game against West Virginia on Feb. 2 at MCI Center. The group also gave students the opportunity to invite professors or administrators to accompany them to the game free of charge.

The group’s goal, as stated in a broadcast e-mail to the undergraduate student body, is to “develop campus programming aimed at both enhancing our community and reducing harm related to high-risk alcohol use.”

Scott Minto (SFS ’02) helped organize the basketball event. “I thought it was a big success,” Minto said, and added that he was glad that Georgetown won the game. He said that around 130 free tickets were given out to freshmen and 22 students invited faculty to the game. He mentioned that one student brought McDonough School of Business Dean Christopher Puto to the game.

Nanayaa Kumi (COL ’05), a freshman who attended Saturday’s game, said, “I liked going to the game and getting a free ticket, because I wouldn’t have gone otherwise.” Shameka Harmon (NHS ’05) also got a free ticket and said, “I thought it was very nice what they were doing because it was encouraging kids not to drink.”

Two other programs outlined by the organization allow students to bring a faculty member with them to Yates, Darnall or New South for free. The Friends Group wrote in the e-mail that if students get 50 professors to go to Yates with them before spring break, “a donation of $5,000 will be made to fund a series of informal faculty-student gatherings later this semester.”

The group began in the summer of 2000 when Vice President for Communications and Public Affairs and an assistant professor in the English Department Daniel Porterfield (CAS ’83) began to organize a discussion about student alcohol use with students, faculty and administrators who were spending their summers at Georgetown.

Porterfield contacted student body President Ryan DuBose (COL ’02) to help organize such a discussion.

Originally planned as a single event, the discussion developed into around 15 meetings throughout the summer that continued on a weekly basis into the school year, according to DuBose. Shannon Ross (COL ’02) said that the group continued to meet because they felt that they should do something about the problems they were discussing, not just talk about them. DuBose described the first meeting and subsequent ones as, “more open than any conversations I’ve been a part of since I’ve been at Georgetown.” He said it was the success of the first meeting that encouraged him to continue the discussion.

Of the group’s purpose, DuBose said, “I don’t think anybody’s against increasing safety and reducing harm.” Ross said that the group wants to help, “make the campus a safer place,” and help students to, “grow and be responsible.”

DuBose noted that this group is looking at the problems associated with alcohol use in a very different way than previous groups at Georgetown have looked at them. “I understand that people are going to drink here,” DuBose said. The group is not trying to stop in a very different way than previous groups at Georgetown have looked at them. “I understand that people are going to drink here,” DuBose said. The group is not trying to stop students from drinking entirely, they are simply looking at ways to reduce harm from drinking and increase safety. “It’s about caring for the community,” he said.

In their efforts to increase community involvement in the organization, DuBose said active recruiting led to a doubling of membership from 40 participants to the 80 to 100 people involved in The Friends Group this semester.

The Friends Group is divided into four subcommittees that meet once a week, with two students and one faculty member or administrator co-chairing a committee. The committees each have a different focus.

Of the group’s work, Eduardo Ferrer (MSB ’02), one of the group’s original members, said, “it really has been a very collaborative effort among students, faculty, and administration,” to make Georgetown a better place. Ferrer said that working in The Friends Group has been “an amazing experience,” and that the group “is basically a microcosm of what we are trying to accomplish on a larger scale,” at Georgetown. DuBose said that he had never seen a project where so many people were equally involved at so many different levels.

DuBose, who chairs the Harm Reduction Committee, said that his group hopes to eventually create a student safety shuttle to run between Prospect Street, the front gates of Georgetown and Burlieth.

Ferrer, one of the co-chairs of the First Year Experience Committee, said that through his group’s activities, he hopes to help tie freshmen to something bigger – to Georgetown and its history. He said that there are many projects his committee is considering, including expanding NSO or organizing a scavenger hunt in Washington for the freshman class.

In addition, the organization created an advisory committee for the Department of Public Safety last semester, to which GUSA appointed representatives. Some members of the group have also pointed out areas where call boxes and lighting should be upgraded.The group also played host to speakers such as Alcoholic Beverage Control Board Chair Rod Woodson, on campus during January.

This semester, the group plans to develop an educational program about alcohol use at Georgetown, The plan will be funded by a $300,000 grant earmarked for such an educational program which was recently received by the Office of Student Affairs.