President Rozanski’s message to the campus community on April 5 follows.

I am writing to update you regarding the task force that I am establishing and the informal group meetings that we are scheduling in response to the Gary DeVercelly tragedy.

The Presidential Task Force on Alcohol, Personal Responsibility, and Student Life will be led by Donald Steven, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, with Debbie Stasolla, Associate Vice President for Planning, serving as vice-chair. I am especially grateful to the students, faculty, staff, and alumni who have agreed to serve on the task force and to those of you who have volunteered to work with the task force in a resource capacity.

The task force is charged with the responsibility to assess the effectiveness of Rider’s alcohol policies, enforcement activities, and education and outreach programs as they pertain to all aspects of student life in the context of national best practices. The task force will make recommendations to the President on policies, programs, and actions that will protect the health and safety of the University community in so far as it is affected by the use and misuse of alcohol. A subcommittee of the task force is also specifically charged to review and assess the role of Greek social organizations and the need for individual and shared responsibility as it relates to the quality of the student life experience.

The task force will be assisted in its efforts by national consultants and will maintain a liaison with the Student Affairs Committee of the Board of Trustees. The task force will begin meeting next week and it is my expectation that it will complete its work before the end of the spring semester.

The members of the task force are:

Zachary Aguanno, Resident Assistant
Nicholas Bice, President, InterFraternity Council
Richard Burgh, Chair, Department of Philosophy
Anthony Campbell, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs
Pat Chmel, Chair, Department of Fine Arts
John Farrell, Interim Assistant Dean, College of Business Administration
Stephanie Golski, Department of Psychology
Jeffrey Halpern, Department of Sociology
Jonathan Husch, Chair, Department of Geological, Environmental, and Marine Sciences
Steven Klemchalk, President, Lawrenceville Student Government Association
Anne Law, Chair, Department of Psychology
James Manahan, President, Alumni Association
Jonathan Millen, Chair, Department of Communication and Journalism
Miriam Mills, Department of Fine Arts
Marshall Onofrio, Associate Dean, Westminster Choir College
Gary Pajer, Department of Chemistry
Anthony Rajkumar, President, Intercultural Greek Council
Alyssa Ruggiero, President, Panhellenic Council
Elaine Scorpio, Department of Psychology
Christian Stück, President, Westminster Student Government Association
Gary Taylor, Head Coach, Wrestling
Marc Wallace, Director, Leadership Development Program

In addition to serving as regular task force members, the following individuals will constitute the Student Affairs support team, assisting the various work groups:

Ada Badgley, Director of Greek Life
Jan Friedman-Krupnick, Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs
Larry Johnson, Associate Dean of Students, Westminster Choir College
Cindy Threatt, Director of Residence Life
Vickie Weaver, Director of Public Safety
Corinne Zupko, Counselor, Counseling Services

I invite members of the Rider community to contribute to the process. You can share your thoughts, concerns, and ideas with the task force via a special e-mail address established for this purpose: taskforce@rider.edu. Either Donald Steven or Debbie Stasolla will follow up on all emails received.

With regard to the informal group meetings, Donald Steven, Debbie Stasolla, and I met on Tuesday with the Lawrenceville Student Senate and last evening with the Greek community. These meetings were helpful, I believe, in establishing a good beginning and a shared commitment to engage these issues. I would like to thank those students who spoke very candidly about their personal experiences, concerns, and suggestions for improvement. We have also scheduled sessions with Poyda residents and the Westminster student body. I am certain that the information we gather as a result of these meetings and via e-mail will be very helpful as this process unfolds.

Finally, we will continue to keep you informed regarding our efforts via email and a special page on our Web site: http://www.rider.edu/devercellyupdates.

Every day I see further evidence confirming that we are a caring and resilient community. I have every confidence that by continuing to be candid with each other and by being open to examining all issues involved, we will learn from this tragic incident and emerge stronger. I am equally confident that as a community we are committed to taking actions so that such a tragedy never happens again.

Sincerely,

Mordechai Rozanski
President

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