Some UF students are fighting for their right to party.
About 40 students, mostly members of Student Government, gathered Thursday at a Reitz Union meeting room to voice their opinions on proposed changes to the Student Conduct Code to Patricia Telles-Irvin, vice president for Student Affairs.
The final decision on the proposed amendments will be made in September by the Board of Trustees, UF's highest governing body. The decision includes a ban on common-source alcohol containers such as beer balls and kegs and taking away the Student Honor Court's right to hear academic dishonesty cases.
"I didn't know if students were going to care about regulations, but here you are," Telles-Irvin said. "So I'm thrilled."
After speaking to the students for a few minutes without providing background information on the resolutions, Telles-Irvin opened the floor for student comment.
Sam Miorelli, president of the Orange and Blue Party, spoke up several times during the two-hour discussion.
"I am going to start by saying that I am guilty of three of these regulations," Miorelli said. "I have engaged in a drinking game before."
He said he's also been inebriated on campus and shared a bottle of wine with his girlfriend Wednesday night, making it a common source container.
The proposed regulation changes to the conduct code that are causing such a stir ban the use of common source containers and drinking games, such as keg tipping and alcohol luges.
These apply to on-campus locations, including sorority and fraternity houses, and off-campus locations in certain situations.
Some students criticized the guidelines for those situations, saying that they are too vague.
"As it's written, if you're a 30-year-old grad school student drinking a punch bowl at your sister's party halfway around the world, you're violating the Student Code of Conduct," said Student Sen. Ben Cavataro.
Cavataro recommended that the amendments be changed to better explain the scope of UF's jurisdiction over student activities.
Miorelli called for the changes to be eliminated completely.
"All this does is it creates an opportunity for the university to play heavy-handed at the biggest party school in the nation," he said.
However, Telles-Irvin said the amendments don't actually change UF's policies - they just clarify them.
"If you have a bottle of wine, Sam, enjoy it," she said. "I'm not going to come after you."
It's only an issue if student safety is jeopardized, she said.
Also discussed was a move to take the ability to hear academic dishonesty cases away from the Student Honor Court, which in the last seven years has heard only 22 of the 11,000 incidents at UF, she said.Currently, students charged in academic dishonesty cases can go before the Student Conduct Committee, composed of students and faculty, or deal directly with administrators and go to trial in the student-run honor court.
"If you take away their jurisdictions, I mean, that's the same as getting rid of it," said Jonathan Ossip, Student Senate parliamentarian.
