February 21, 2007

Dear Members of the Providence College Community:

 In the liturgy for today’s celebration of Ash Wednesday, the first lines of the reading from the prophet Joel are a communal invitation from God:  Even now, says the LORD, return to me with your whole heart.  The painful truth that we all have to face as we begin this holy season is that we are not wholeheartedly set on God, but rather have the kind of divided heart that St. Augustine so eloquently depicts in his Confessions.  In order for us to give ourselves wholeheartedly to God, we must first acknowledge with radical self-honesty the attractions and actions that divide us from God, inhibit our growth into the divine image, and so make us unhappy. 

What is true for us as individuals is also true for us as a community.  We cannot grow into the community that God calls us to be without honestly facing the negative aspects of our campus culture that prevent us from realizing God’s loving purpose in bringing us together.  One such negative element of our campus culture is alcohol abuse.  Last year I created a new Committee on Campus Culture, Conduct, and Civility, and charged it specifically to assess the problem of alcohol abuse on this campus, to research best practices at other institutions, and to make recommendations to me on how to remediate the problem. 

After almost a year of study and hard work, the Committee has sent me its initial assessment and report.  Today I am posting their report on my website for everyone on the campus to read.  I do so with a certain amount of regret, however, because the committee’s report documents a campus with a serious alcohol abuse problem. 

It is to be expected that making this report available for all to read will lead to some negative publicity for the College.  But I firmly believe that the first step to real change is radical honesty as a community.  It is important that we all understand the magnitude of the problem and the challenge that lies before us.  If the culture of alcohol abuse on this campus is to change—and change it must—then we all have to work together.  Edicts from administrators cannot change the culture; it has to be a collective effort by everyone on campus—students, faculty, staff, and administration—if real change is to occur.

I therefore invite and urge all of you to read and study the report which you can access at www.providence.edu/alcoholabuse. The report is clearly and succinctly written, so I will not rehearse its contents here.  What I do want to stress, however, is that it ends with a series of open-ended questions designed to foster a broad campus conversation about how to begin to change the culture.  It deliberately avoids specific recommendations about how to address the problem because the committee believes, and I concur, that we need to keep an open mind about what steps we should take until we have had a chance to discuss the problem as a community. 

Just as edicts from administrators cannot solve the problem, neither can reports from committees.  We need to move forward as a committed community and such commitment is best elicited when everyone has had a chance to contribute to the discussion about how to change the culture.  As the conclusion of the report outlines, members of the Committee will consult with a number of groups and individuals on campus, there will be two public forums for discussion, and individuals are encouraged to submit electronic and written communications to the Committee.  The Committee will then propose specific recommendations for further public comment.  When the process is complete, the administration will then propose policy changes to be implemented as soon as feasible. 

We all have to understand that changing a culture will take some time, and so we have to be patient with the process even as we feel a sense of urgency to address this issue directly, holistically, and in a timely way. I fully expect that some of these policies will be in place as soon as next September with the opening of the new academic year.

As anyone who has studied alcohol abuse on college campuses knows, there is no silver bullet solution to the problem.  But there are some strategies that show promise, and we need to determine what will work here on the Providence College campus.  One sign of hope in the report is the revelation that our students recognize the problem and want to see it addressed.  I therefore believe the moment is propitious.  Our efforts to remedy the problem of alcohol abuse converge providentially with both our efforts to renew the core curriculum and to build a new Fitness Center:  our students cannot learn successfully and be healthy if we do not act decisively to end alcohol abuse at Providence College.

In conclusion, I want to thank the Committee on Campus Culture, Conduct, and Civility for all its hard work.  They have faced and framed the problem for all of us.  Let us begin now to face together the challenges, confident that God will bless our efforts.  In today’s second reading, St. Paul challenges the community at Corinth not to receive the grace of God in vain.  He then reminds them of God’s promise: In an acceptable time I heard you, and on the day of salvation I helped you.  Behold, now is a very acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

Now is the acceptable time for us to face the problem of alcohol abuse on our campus, confident in God’s abiding promise of help.

Rev. Brian J. Shanley, O.P.

February 21, 2007
Read the report from the College's Committee on Campus Culture, Conduct, and Civility: Addressing the Abuse of Alcohol on Campus: An Invitation to the Providence College Community (PDF)

April 30, 2007
Read the report from the College's Committee on Campus Culture, Conduct, and Civility: Addressing the Abuse of Alcohol on Campus: Draft Recommendations (PDF)

Read a related story from The Providence Journal.