SGA probes SafeRides

Author: Scott Greene

The Student Government Association (SGA) met Sunday in the Robert A. Jones '59 conference room to discuss an amendment to the previously passed "Middlebury SafeRides" transportation bill addressing Middlebury College's liability for providing student-run transportation from off-campus parties. The SGA voiced concerns that the original bill did not provide the College with sufficient liability protection, since a drunken student could easily board a vehicle and sign a document without real knowledge of what he or she is signing.

The amendment addresses this flaw, stating that the student must sign the contract "at a time when the individual participant possesses all necessary faculties for the contract to be honored and upheld in the court of law." In one of many implementation strategies posed by the SGA, students would have to sign a contract well beforehand, at a table staffed outside Ross or Proctor dining halls.

Students would only have to sign the contract once, reducing the amount of red-tape for those who frequent off campus parties. A main component of the amendment requires that students need to have signed a contract by the first two weeks of the semester or at the commencement of the program. Ultimately, the SGA hopes that the entire student body will have signed the contract.

Though funding uncertainties threaten the longevity of the SafeRides program, Senator Andrew Carnabuci '06, the program's development leader, stressed the need to neglect the long term in this instance.

"Our priority is not designing a program with longevity," Carnabuci said, "but instead getting this program off the ground and making sure more people don't get hurt." Under the amendment, paid drivers will possess a list of names and signed contracts as they shuttle students to and from off-campus parties. However, as Dean of Student Affairs Ann Hanson pointed out, this may present the driver with a difficult choice."This puts the driver in a difficult position if you have four people waiting to get on and three have signed a form but one hasn't," said Hanson.

While the issue of liability proved the main topic of discussion, other concerns included how to best identify those that have signed contracts and how to deal with siblings or other visitors that wish to attend off-campus parties. The meeting also included an endorsement by SGA President Eli Berman '07.5 of Fresh Tracks Music, an online service that is seeking to reach out to college students. Fresh Tracks Music focuses on discovering people who are trying to get exposure.

The SGA must also review Napster, currently the chosen music provider for the College, at the end of the year. Napster costs tens of thousands per year for the College to fund, while Fresh Tracks would operate on an individual basis. Instead of the SGA or the College paying for an expensive service, Fresh Tracks will be used and subscribed to only by interested parties.

Berman made it clear that though the program resembles Napster in many ways, there is little overlap. One distinguishing feature of Fresh Tracks is that once a student logs into his or her account, the home page displays a portal that lets he or she know of any upcoming music events on campus. This, Berman said, is a very appealing quality.

"This music feature provides the community aspect that Middlebury needs," he said, adding that the SGA originally hoped that Napster would accomplish this.

Berman also formed an ad-hoc committee to review and possibly rewrite the constitution so as to "reform the SGA to make it more commons-based." He expressed a desire to change the basic structure of the SGA to include everyone, observing that residential life has changed a great deal since the constitution was written.

The SGA concluded the meeting by discussing the ongoing newspaper issue, in which students have left newspapers lying around inside dining halls, much to the dismay of Dining Services employees. Newspaper service has been temporarily restored, and the SGA voted to move the racks either inside the dining halls or "where it will be most conducive to newspapers being returned."

In addition, Senate members debated the best way to solve the dish problem that costs the College thousands of dollars each year. Possible initiatives include a mass e-mail or publicity campaign in attempts to appeal to Middlebury students to return dishes to the dining halls.