With several major changes to Georgetown’s alcohol policy under consideration, members of the Disciplinary Review Committee say students’ perspectives on the changes have been minimized due to lack of attendance from some of its student representatives.

Samantha Williams (COL ’06) and Nadia Marquez (COL ’09) – two of the three student representatives on the committee – have not attended the committee’s meetings this semester, citing what they said were scheduling conflicts, and reducing the number of students sitting on the panel from three to one.

Committee members said earlier this month that the DRC is considering recommending new restrictions on student alcohol use, including increased disciplinary sanctions and bans on keg use. If the committee recommends such changes, they must be approved by Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson before going into effect.

Williams said that the members of the committee, which also includes three faculty members and four administrators, discussed meeting times via e-mail at the beginning of the semester, and ultimately settled on Friday mornings, which conflicted with her class schedule.

Williams said that she never officially resigned from the committee, but that she has not received e-mails sent between group members this semester. No replacement for Williams or Marquez has been made.

“Everyone knew I wouldn’t be able to come to the meetings this semester,” Williams said.

Marquez said that she stopped attending meetings about a month into the fall 2005 semester because meeting times also conflicted with her class schedule.

One of the faculty representatives on the committee, German Professor Kurt Jankowsky, said that he was never informed of the scheduling conflicts and expressed dismay that the students’ schedules were not accommodated.

“I am flabbergasted. that no time could be found for the students to attend,” he said.

Jankowsky said that if no time could have been reached that was agreeable to all 10 committee members, replacements should have been appointed to ensure adequate representation from faculty, administrators and students.

A balanced discussion is not possible “without some `yes’es and some `no’s,” he said.

The committee’s third student, Slade Smith (MSB ’06), who was appointed to the committee by former GUSA President Pravin Rajan (SFS ’07), said that Williams and arquez could not be replaced because they are serving one-year terms. Williams was appointed to the committee by Jeanne Lord, DRC chair and associate vice president for student affairs.

Lord did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Smith, who said that he has attended many but not all of the DRC meetings this semester, said that greater student representation would provide more balance to the committee’s deliberations on the alcohol policy.

Students “view drinking and partying as a natural part of socializing on college campuses,” while faculty and administrators are generally less accepting of student alcohol consumption, Smith said.

Smith also said that although he was unsure how the two absent student members would feel about proposed changes to the alcohol policy, greater student representation on the committee would likely lead to greater opposition.

“It’s important to increase the student voice [on the committee],” he said.

Jankowsky said that student opinion played an influential role in the fall semester when the committee was considering changes to the alcohol policy.

Gwen Owens, head librarian at Blommer Science Library and a DRC faculty member, said that she supported this year’s proposed changes to tighten alcohol restrictions, after voting against changes that were presented to Olson in 2004.

Owens said that the faculty and administrators on the committee value students’ opinions, but that committee members were forced to consider the policy changes because they did not have time to stall the DRC’s agenda.

“They’re a true reality on how these policies would play out in the real world,” she said, commenting on the value of student input on the decisions of the committee.

“I hope that whoever gets appointed to this next year takes it seri