By Nick Norlen, Staff Writer
A presentation on Princeton University’s new alcohol policies and enforcement scheduled for Tuesday’s Princeton Borough Council meeting has been postponed until February.
An expanded discussion is now being planned, according to university Director of Community and Regional Affairs Kristin Appelget, who was slated to give a presentation on the new policies and the coalition formed to address alcohol-related issues on campus.
Corner House Director Gary DeBlasio is now organizing the February meeting, which will take place at Borough Hall.
He said the meeting is held annually to discuss alcohol-related issues, and has traditionally included municipal, police and university officials as well as students.
”For the last five years, we’ve had the university and the (eating) clubs and the students come to a Borough Council meeting and just review the progress that they’ve made on underage drinking on campus,” he said.
Mr. DeBlasio said part of the discussion will be to brief officials on the university’s new initiatives.
Last month, the university announced the formation of a coalition to address high-risk alcohol use among its undergraduates.
The coalition is composed of students, faculty and staff, and will work to gather information and produce a tentative comprehensive strategic plan by May 2008.
The formation of the coalition closely followed revisions to the university’s alcohol policy that call for dormitory hallway patrols by the university’s Public Safety officers.
In addition, the university’s residential college advisors will be expected to take more active roles next year when they observe violations of the alcohol policy.
Ms. Appelget said the work of the coalition will be “well under way by February,” which will allow council members and other interested parties to gauge its progress and the status of the enforcement of alcohol consumption on campus.
”We’re just going to go through a different method of outreach to Borough Council members to get their input,” she said. “The university looks forward to participating.”
Although Mayor Mildred Trotman previously announced that the Borough Council’s annual meeting with university representatives would include discussion of how Public Safety interacts with the borough police department, she said Thursday that she plans to bifurcate the two issues.
”The two may be somewhat related, but I want each to carry its own weight,” she said.
Mayor Trotman said the meeting with public safety officials won’t likely be scheduled until at least late January.
In July, Princeton Borough Police Chief Anthony Federico made a presentation to the county prosecutor’s office about his department’s interaction with the Public Safety office and is awaiting their feedback.
”I was told by the prosecutors’ representatives that they were working on the issue and they were going to put together some parameters,” he said. He added: “There’s still confusion as to what departments are going to be handling what. As far as I know at this point, the Princeton Borough Police Department will still handle any major event that occurs on campus.”

