College IDs to be required at dances

Students from any college or university will now be asked to provide student identification when attending IU dance functions on campus locations. Officials say the revision is not a response to events after a Sept. 17 fraternity dance.\nThe Student Activities Office dance committee met Monday to discuss and edit the current dance policy, which is currently less than one year old. The purpose of the SAO dance committee is to plan upcoming dances and provide security measures for the functions.\nThe original dance policy indicated that students who didn't have college identification were not required to sign-in at dances, regardless of what University the student attended. \nCpt. Keith Cash, dance committee representative for IUPD, said the dance policy is currently evolving so non-students won't be admitted to dances.\nSteve Veldkamp, assistant dean of students and director of student activities, said the dance committee began meeting in September to forge a uniform dance policy for the Indiana Memorial Union, Residential Programs and Services, Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center, Student Recreational Sport Complex and the athletics department to use for student groups who want to play host dances on campus. \n"Consistent policies help students understand what is expected of them when hosting a dance on campus regardless if the dance is at the IMU, RPS or athletics," Veldkamp said.\nBefore this school term, groups and organizations across campus had individualized policies and procedures when playing host dances on campus. This has been frustrating for student organizations who try to apply procedures from one area of the University to another, Veldkamp said.\nRichard McKaig, dean of students, said the sign-in list is an aspect of the dance policy that has now been clarified. The revisions to the policy now \nrequire guests to provide the person working at the door of the dance with a valid college or university ID.\nCash said organizers of a Sept. 17 Alpha Phi Alpha dance went above and beyond the previous policy's requirements because the fraternity took the initiative to sign in any guest who didn't have an IU identification. That list was used in an investigation of gun shots after the dance, and it was found that nearly every guest who signed in at a dance was a "guest" of the person working at the door managing the guest list. \n"(Alpha Phi Alpha) signed in everybody, even if you had a college ID from another University," Cash said. "That's not the way the policy was written, but thankfully they did that."\nAfter investigations, IUPD found no connection between the Alpha Phi Alpha dance and the reported gun shots.\nThe revised dance policy will be implemented and evaluated to see whether it works successfully in the near future.\n-- Staff writer James Klaunig Jr. contributed to this report.