Office of the Chancellor > State of the Campus Address 2004

State of the Campus Address
September 28, 2004

First of all, in light of the recent death of a CU-Boulder student at an off-campus fraternity, I want to talk about the need to better educate our students about the dangers of alcohol abuse, about students building self-respect and about taking pride in themselves and their university.

Today, I call upon the entire campus and the Boulder community to join me in a concerted attack on the misuse and abuse of alcohol among our young people.

Our hearts go out to the family and friends of Lynn Gordon Bailey, Jr., or "Gordie," our freshman student whose life came to an untimely, tragic ending a week and a half ago. I also want to acknowledge the impact of the loss of this young life on our campus community.

We all share a genuine, deep concern about the health and safety of our students and it especially pains us when we lose one of our own. The tragedy underscores the need to re-evaluate our current efforts to foster students' social development, particularly our strategies for reducing abuses of alcohol and other drugs.

Clearly, alcohol abuse and underage drinking are long-term societal problems that require long-term educational and social initiatives to curb. For universities, each year is a challenge with a new wave of students coming to campus — many of them already struggling with alcohol problems. We enroll 5,000 teenagers each year and help them mature and learn to be responsible citizens with integrity and the highest standards of behavior. This is not easy, but it is a critical responsibility for our students, faculty and staff. Another challenge for our society is the enormous investment by the alcohol industry in marketing and promotion — some of it clearly aimed at young people.

As you know, CU-Boulder has undertaken numerous initiatives in recent years to address alcohol issues in a systematic way — such as the establishment of several alcohol education and awareness programs, along with more stringent sanctions for violations of alcohol policies. These initiatives include a mandatory alcohol education course for freshmen that began this year, the 1996 beer ban at the football stadium, neighborhood outreach, orientation presentations, scheduling alternative non-alcohol activities, communications plans, and stronger enforcement and consequences for alcohol-related violations.

But this recent tragedy emphasizes the fact that we must do even more — and our students must do more — to address issues related to alcohol on campus and our relationship with the Greek system. Therefore, today I am announcing the following set of initial actions related to Greek life:

• First of all, we have petitioned the national office of Chi Psi fraternity to immediately revoke the charter of the local chapter, in light of the recent death of one of their prospective members, Gordie Bailey, and a history of difficulties associated with this chapter.

• Secondly, we have initiated discussions with fraternity and sorority leaders to assess all aspects of Greek life. In particular, we plan to articulate a set of expectations for local chapters, addressing such issues as:
• Abuse of alcohol and drugs
• Deferring membership recruitment, or rush, of freshman students
• Hazing
• Personal safety at social events
• Fire safety
• Non-discrimination
• Other relevant issues

In regard to campus strategies related to alcohol:

• We will further intensify efforts by our Standing Committee on Substance Abuse to coordinate and enhance campus programming and develop appropriate responses related to alcohol abuse.

• We have asked Bob Maust, chair of SCOSA, to serve as our liaison with the folks at Colorado State University who are dealing with the same issues, so that we may share information and learn from each other's experience.

• We are planning a roundtable discussion this semester to examine the overall issue of alcohol misuse and abuse among college students. We expect this roundtable will lay the groundwork for a national colloquium on our campus that will focus on "best practices" in the field.

• We will continue our most effective peer educator programs and initiate others as needed, believing that students' behavior is most influenced by their peers.

• We will enhance our substance-free living areas and offer an expanded training program for Resident Advisors to help them facilitate discussions about community standards and programs in campus housing.

• We will include a mandatory essay question in our application process for prospective students, seeking to send a strong message about how they could make a positive contribution to our campus culture.

• We will revise our new-student orientation programs to further stress messages about what it means to be a CU student, including addressing issues related to alcohol as well as gender violence and diversity.

• We will ask the faculty to become more involved in guiding undergraduates, both in terms of academic expectations and personal development.

The bottom line is, we are determined to do everything we can to prevent another tragedy, such as those that recently occurred both at CSU and CU. The national issue of alcohol abuse continues to confound most colleges and universities. But we will persevere.

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