David Roselle
University of Delaware
Throughout
his tenure as President of the University of Delaware, David Roselle has been
leading the charge to combat high-risk alcohol use by students. His comprehensive
efforts to create a healthier University of Delaware campus for students to
live and study have ranged from education and awareness activities to environmental
change, including the adoption and enforcement of community laws and campus
policies.
Under President Roselle’s leadership, the UD increased the surveillance
and enforcement of student drinking by initiating harsher penalties, including
a "three-strikes and you’re out" (suspension) policy. Additionally,
the UD was the first institution in the nation to notify parents of underage
students in violation of campus alcohol policies. President Roselle has also
helped to increase financial support to student groups who organize alcohol-free
events in and around campus.
As one of the ten colleges funded by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s
"A Matter of Degree" (AMOD) program, the University of Delaware
has developed a broad-based community coalition with constituencies in the
city of Newark to address high-risk drinking on campus and in the surrounding
community. Together, the Building Responsibility Coalition has been instrumental
in initiating the following efforts:
- The Newark City Council has lowered the blood alcohol concentration (BAC)
level for DUI within the city of Newark to 0.08 as opposed to the state’s
BAC level of 1.0.
- The Newark City Council voted to restrict happy hours and discounted drink
specials citywide from 4 to 9 pm.
- The Delaware Alcoholic Beverage Control, in cooperation with the Newark
Police Department, continues to conduct sting operations in local liquor
stores and restaurants/bars.
- The Downtown Newark Partnership published a guide to downtown Newark,
denoting the businesses that are alcohol-free.
Since becoming an AMOD school, the level of binge drinking on the UD campus
has dropped from 62 percent of all students reporting incidents of alcohol
abuse in 1993 to 57 percent. In addition, during the same time period, the
population of students who abstained from drinking has doubled.
President Roselle has also been involved in:
- Implementing a 5-Star Greek Rating system that links the privilege of
rushing first semester freshman to a chapter’s academic standing and
social conduct. The system rewards fraternities and sororities for good
behaviors in five areas: academics, financial management, service, campus
involvement, and new-member education. During the 1996-1997 school year,
none of UD’s fraternities qualified for five stars. By the fall of
1999, six of 19 fraternities had earned five stars, while another nine held
either three or four star ratings. All of UD’s sororities are rated
as four or five star.
- Enforcing a long-standing tail-gating policy that requires all tailgating
parties to stop when the football game begins and implementing a "no
pass out" policy, which prohibits fans from re-entering the stadium
once they have left. These policies have been successful: during the 1998
football season before these policies were instituted, UD had 23 ambulance
trips from the football stadium to the hospital for alcohol poisoning. In
1999, when they enforced our policy, there were none. Also in 1999, four
arrests were made for underage drinking and two for disorderly conduct.
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