Committee for Safe Student Drinking

Tonight the DSU Council had its first meeting of the new year. One of Dalhousie's medical students did a presentation to council on a proposed committee for safe student drinking.

The Committee for Safe Student Drinking is a multi-institutional, interfaculty student group created to address the concerns surrounding post-secondary student drinking in Halifax. Specifically the committee will:

1) Collect all relevant research and perform an environmental scan of the post-secondary student population in the HRM, regarding areas of primary concern related to student drinking.

2) Develop a list of discrete solutions to propose to municipal and provincial governments as well as university administrations.

3) Advocate for the implementation of the proposed solutions by the appropriate bodies.

At any time, the committee may add to these specific tasks. Although the committee was initially sanctioned by the Dalhousie Medical Students’ Society, we aim to have at least one student representative from the following organizations: Halifax Student Alliance, Saint Mary’s University Students’ Association, MSVU Students’ Union, NSCC Students Association, Student Union of NSCAS, King’s Students’ Union, Dalhousie Health Science Students’ Association, Dalhousie Law Students’ Society, and Dalhousie Student Union. The committee is open to any student attending a post-secondary institution in the HRM, even is their student organization was not mentioned in the preceding list. The committee also will have advisory representatives from Doctors Nova Scotia, local law enforcement, the Atlantic Institute of Criminology, and the HRM regional council.

Given the large size of this group, the committee will communicate mostly over email. Small sub-committees will be set-up to complete specific tasks that require meeting in person (e.g. research collection, municipal lobbying, etc). The minimum responsibilities of committee members will be reviewing the compiled research and solution document, and acting as a communication channel with the student organization that they represent.

At the next DSU council meeting - January 21st 6:30pm in Council Chambers - we will be voting on the following motion:

BIRT Dalhousie Student Union Council expresses its support of the Committee for Safe Student Drinking's objectives and affirms its activities to promote safe student drinking amongst the Dalhousie community and in the greater Halifax student community.