Students caught drinking underage would have to undergo a rehabilitation program under a proposal highlighted Monday by a student council committee.
Associated Students of Madison’s Legislative Affairs Vice Chair Hannah Somers said the university is considering implementing a program called Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention of College Students that features multiple steps for rehabilitating students who have alcohol problems if they get in trouble with the university. The program would be in addition to a ticket imposed by law enforcement.
Somers said both Chancellor Biddy Martin and University Health Services support putting the program in place, but are still hashing out all the details with a hope to establish the program by the fall semester.
“Students would have to pay for the program out of their own pocket and UW would get a report back from the contracted companies who would run the program,” Somers said. “Our biggest concern as students is that this would be held off campus and brings in a payment aspect, but there doesn’t seem like there is anything that can be done.”
Also at the meeting, Legislative Affairs Vice Chair Sam Seering said students should also keep an eye on the Wisconsin Idea Partnership, the UW System’s plan that would essentially implement Martin’s New Badger Partnership’s ideas to the entire UW system.
Seering said detailed language on the partnership is not yet available, but the Joint Finance Committee is scheduled to hear the proposal within the next few weeks. He also said a series of community meetings will be held in the next two or three weeks, with one rumored to be held at UW’s Kohl Center.
Seering also said tuition projections for the 2011-2012 academic year should be released by the end of the week. He said estimates show between a 7 and 9 percent increase. Tuition for the current academic year rose 8.7 percent from the previous year.
Members of the committee also deciphered the various implications a number of legislative bills would have on the student population in the coming months.
Legislative Affairs Committee Chair Sam Polstein said state representatives have provided committee members with positive feedback surrounding the possibility of allowing public university student ID cards as a suitable form of identification under the Republican-driven voter ID bill.
Polstein said he met with Rep. Gary Tauchen, R-Bonduel, last week to discuss the possibility of amending the bill to be more student-friendly – a discussion he said could be generally characterized as a “very positive” meeting.
“[Some] Assembly representatives seem forward and open, and while they are in support of the voter ID bill as a whole, they would like to amend it in favor of including student IDs,” Polstein said. “There were definitely some doubts about whether the rest of the caucus would come around to that – the fight is definitely not over.”
Polstein said he also spoke with Tauchen about the residency length requirement provision of the bill, which mandates a voter be a resident at their registered Wisconsin address for 28 days prior to the election instead of the current 10 days.
The change in residency requirement could pose a problem for first-year student voters who move into the dorms in the fall, Polstein said. With the longer requirement, first-year students would most likely not be able to vote in the primary elections.
Representatives also provided positive responses to Polstein’s concerns about eliminating the current voter registration provision that allows a witness to vouch for an individual’s residency when the resident cannot provide a copy of the lease or utility bill with his or her name present, Polstein said.
“We discussed and had positive feedback on the vouching rule that is eliminated in the new bill,” he said. “We talked about instead narrowing the scope of vouching to someone who lives in the same residence.”
He said if the Legislature does not maintain some form of vouching allowance, students who live in fraternity or sorority houses would be deterred or prevented from voting.
