Graphic by Chloe Saba/ The Daily Campus

The President’s Commission for Substance Abuse Prevention and Education is going through several changes this fall semester. Don’t recognize this organization?  It’s the new face of the task force. It is not only changing its name, but it is also changing the way SMU regulates social events on and off campus.

The Social Event Registration Committee (SERC) is a branch under the president’s commission designed to facilitate student organizations by registering their social events throughout each semester and dealing with social conduct issues. The committee includes one social event registration coordinator, two representatives from the SMU student body and one representative from each of the following: Student Activities & Multicultural Student Affairs, Student Conduct & Community Standards, Fraternity & Sorority Life, Residence Life & Student Housing and the SMU Police Department.

As the committee enters its second year as an administrative body, it has revamped the conditions under which organizations can throw social events with a point system adopted this semester.

“We wanted to be able to bring back the ability to have certain events that maybe weren’t allowed under last year’s procedure,” said Steven Newcomb, current social event registration coordinator and assistant to the executive director of Student Development Programs. “We have full support of the senior administration to do that, as long as we have a method to make sure its groups that are doing things right to get those opportunities.”

In the past few years, SMU has acquired a reputation for alcohol and drug abuse. In the 2006-07 school year, three students died from alcohol or drug related issues and 434 alcohol and drug violations were given out.  Consequently, the SMU Task Force came down hard on the student body by outlawing fraternity parties during the week, allowing police officers to search houses on a whim and kicking a fraternity off campus for a violation of recruitment rules outlawing parties.  Party registration was another requirement enforced by the Task Force.

Newcomb said the SERC is a way of relaxing these restrictions and working with students to achieve SMU’s risk management standards while making the process easier.

“It’s not really a group to say ‘yes, you can have this party’ or ‘no, you can’t,'” Newcomb said. “Their mission is to make every event happen, safely and in line with SMU’s guidelines.”

The point system developed by SERC awards every official student organization on campus merit in several categories that are accumulated towards social privileges. For example, each group received an automatic five points for having their leaders attend the mandatory organization meeting at the beginning of the year.  If an organization collectively has a grade point average of over 3.0 for the previous semester, they receive another three points. 

Other ways of attaining points include hosting alcohol-free events with other student groups (two points), not receiving infractions from the social event registration procedure, during the previous semester (two points), holding an active community service project attended by 80 percent of organization members (three points), and holding an educational program presented by an approved authority attended by 80 percent of organization members (one point).

The number of points an organization has determined the level of restriction for their social events. Zero points permits students to plan on-campus or off-campus events where alcoholic beverages are not available for consumption or purchase. With five points, an organization is eligible to be considered for registration of off-campus events where alcoholic beverages will be available for consumption and/or purchase on the weekends, defined as after 3 p.m. on Fridays until 5 p.m. on Sundays.  At 10 points, organizations are guaranteed approval for an event involving alcohol on the weekends, and at 15 points they are eligible to register over-night or weekend trips as well as parties during the week.

Police Chief Rick Shafer said leniency on social events will directly affect the number of alcohol and drug violations on campus.  He said typically bus parties have a number of alcohol related incidents that go along with them, especially large groups that get in trouble for intoxication.

“If you’re going to have bus parties on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, instead of just Friday and Saturday, the number [of violations] will go up,” Shafer said.

SMU junior Chase Stuart recently participated in an event to earn points for his fraternity. Sigma Phi Epsilon and the SMU Department of Recreational Sports hosted an event called SMU Gladiators that provided students with a fun alternative to drinking on a Thursday night.  He doesn’t see the point system as a reward, but rather as a punishment. 

“I like that they want it to be a reward system to get the Greek community involved in other things on campus, but saying that doesn’t make it so,” Stuart said.  “They took away our social liberties and now say you can’t do it without points, but we can go anywhere else on a Friday night and get wasted and you can’t do anything about it.”

Stuart says he doesn’t like the idea of strict registration on parties because there’s no clear definition of a frat party.

“Fifteen of my brothers and some other friends at my apartment off-campus isn’t going to be registered,” Stuart said.  “That could potentially screw us over.”

Newcomb’s hopes are higher. He believes the point system is a direct reflection of what SMU students want from SERC.

“The students have a real voice in how things are written … That’s why the student forum last semester was so important to us,” he said.  “Some of these changes, like the ability to have these Thursday night events, came directly from the feedback the students gave.”

Points are cumulative over a full academic year, yet they can be diminished due to a lack of compliance with SERC registration rules.