The new policies initially were passed by the board's Student Affairs Committee. Students who run afoul of university guidelines also will face swifter justice if found guilty of an alcohol-related offense. E-mail, as well as regular mail, will be used to notify students of charges against them and in cases of parental notification. Students are eligible for a prehearing conference, where they have the opportunity to plead guilty and waive their right to a full hearing of their case. Students who don't attend their hearings are ineligible for appeals.
All hearings are to be closed to the public.
The committee also revised the composition of the hearing panel, cutting its membership to a faculty and a student representative, as well as a chairman. The panel formerly had been composed of three faculty and three students and a chairman. The number of students drinking illegally is rising, according to a survey released by the committee. Sixty-four percent of respondents to a survey in 1995 said they drank illegally, while nearly 66 percent said they drank illegally in a similar study this year. In a possible sign that the university's alcohol awareness policies are filtering down to the students, nearly 81 percent of students said this year they knew about the university's alcohol regulations.