Roles People Play

• Informal Roles
  • Students: As emerging adults, students have the power to make their own choices about whether, how much, when, with whom, they will use. Each decision determines what part, if any, alcohol and/or drugs will play in their lives. All students have the right to confront peers or seek assistance from college officials if others' behavior impacts negatively upon them and their living/learning environments.
  • Friends: Peers usually play a major role in students' life-style choices. There's no doubt that many hard-drinkers seek others who like to do the same; just as there is a "hard-core" of sub-free folks who avoid the partiers. Friends can offer crucial support to their friends in distress; others are prime enablers of chemical health problems. Personal relationships are routinely won or lost over these issues.
  • First Year Students: Students come into Carleton with varying experiences with alcohol. Some have had no experience with drinking; some have had a great deal. Many are unsure of their own limitations, while at the same time are figuring out the Carleton culture concerning alcohol. Consequently, students in their first year may engage in drinking behaviors that they would not consider doing once they feel more established. These behaviors can range from complete abstinence to excessive drinking.
• Formal Roles
  • Peer Leaders: All peer leaders are knowledgeable about the various offices on campus. They are trained to refer students to any additional help that they may need. The Peer Leaders include:
    • Multicultural Peer Leaders (MPLs): First year students of color are placed with an MPL upon request. Among other functions, one of the MPL responsibilities is to act as a peer counselor to thier assignedstudents. They are trained to listen and offer advice on all salient campus issues, including alcohol.
    • Student Wellness Advisors (SWAs): Two SWAs are assigned to each dorm. They are trained to deal with health issues, particularly those which students commonly face. They are available as a resource to answer questions and address concerns about alcohol. Similarly, they also plan programs to inform students about health issues. Although they are accessible at other times, all SWAs have weekly office hours (the times andlocations are posted in the dorms). In addition, all floor bathrooms have a SWA sheet, on which students can anonymously ask questions and receive answersregarding health concerns.
    • Resident Assistants (RAs): They are trained in rules, regs., policies, resources, and chemical health issues. They are primarily community builders and resources for students, not floor cops or prohibitionists. That said, drinking is frequently a cause of residential problems, and RAs need to be attentive to issues of alcohol that may occur in the halls. These issues include: public drinking, disruptive or destructive behavior, and personal health problems. They are areas of concern in that they may be jeopardizing the health of a student or the residential community at large. As part of their training, RAs are taught intervention strategies for both short and long term dealings with alcohol.
  • College Officials:
    (Note: No college official plays a parental role towards any Carleton student. They intervene only when a student’s behavior is deemed dangerous or destructive towards him/herself or the community at large. Likewise, by law, officials may not inform parents of their child’s issues with alcohol--or anything else--without the student’s consent.)
    • Hall Directors: These folks are in-residence, paid staff. Their responsibilities include responding to concerns brought to them by residents, RAs, and Security. They do not patrol halls snooping for problems. Then again, they are in residence, are on site for students, and should be comfortable moving about their buildings to meet and interact with students. This inevitably results in some direct and some referred interventions re: drinking, drug use, and related behaviors. Students should expect to be confronted if a hall director encounters them exceeding a boundary line. Most interactions are of the simple "cease and desist" variety. Some circumstances call for more substantive, educational conversation about decisions and behaviors. Generally speaking, the more public and/or disruptive the behavior, the longer the chat. Sometimes, a disciplinary letter results.
    • Residential Life Staff: Bucky Zietz, Steve Wisener, and Kendre Turonie constitute the central office professional staff in Res Life. Each has a wide range of duties including: supervising RAs, managing residential facilities and developing social programs. Each has occasion to discuss unacceptable behavior with students. Many of these discussions are due to excessive drinking or conspicuous drug use. Students are referred to central staff by HDs. If Bucky, Kendre or Steve deems that a follow up is necessary, a discussion ensues. They can encourage students in a more formal way to make better social decisions or issue bills for damages.
    • The Dean of Students Office: Mark Govoni, Bruce Colwell, Steve Davis and Hudlin Wagner are the deans. They assist students for a variety of issues, ranging from academic concerns, to funding programs, to referring students to the right resources. A small amount of their time is devoted to disciplinary interventions with students. Sometimes these are students with substance abuse issues. Deans have the authority to take action if they deem that a student is a threat to his/herself or others. Likewise, they can invoke disciplinary hearing procedures when they cannot come to an agreement with students about how the College should respond to specific behaviors.
    • Security: The primary purpose of our Security officers (there are 7 of them) is to ensure campus safety. They do not have powers of legal arrest. Officers respond to student medical emergencies, unwelcome visitors and, on occasion, loud parties or disruptive incidents. Their essential responsibility is to insure the safety of Carleton and keep the peace. Students are expected to comply respectfully with their requests. Security Officers write incident reports and submit then to the Director of Security, Wayne Eisenhuth. He then distributes reports to other offices on a "need to know" basis, including the Dean of Students Office. On rare occasional usually as a result of difficult, disruptive behavior, or threat to safety, Security officers call the Northfield Police for assistance.
  • The Northfield Police: They do what police everywhere do--enforce the law. So if police officers are called for assistance or just are passing through, students who are in violation of the law, such as underage drinking, may be approached and perhaps cited for violations. They have a right to be on campus in all public places.