"It's keg, keg stand? Is that what it's called?" Patricia Telles-Irvin, vice president of Student Affairs, asked as she began explaining in an interview on Sept. 24 why the phrase "keg tipping" was included in the proposed changes to UF's Student Honor and Conduct codes.
The phrase, she said, was added by a not-so-savvy administrator who confused keg "tipping" with keg "standing." The reference was corrected weeks before UF's Board of Trustees voted on the final version of the revisions, she said.
According to student interpretation of the policy before it assumed its final form, students would be in violation if they possessed a common source container of alcohol, such as a keg, or participated in activities that encouraged excessive, rapid consumption of alcohol, such as beer pong, while on UF property or while participating in a university activity.
But that was one minor example of countless revisions the proposed code changes underwent before being approved Sept. 24 by the Board of Trustees, UF's highest governing body.
The vote, which followed a tumultuous two-month period of student protest, was one event in a process that had been unfolding for more than four years.
The journey began in 2004 with a committee of students, faculty and staff charged with reviewing UF's student judicial system, which is outlined in the Student Honor and Conduct Codes.
The Student Judicial Review Committee concluded in an August 2004 report that the system was healthy but noted a problem with the student-run Honor Court.
The report stated that faculty members felt the court was too adversarial and time-consuming and recommended further review.
Former Interim Vice President of Student Affairs Mike Rollo, who appointed the committee, presented the findings to the Board of Trustees, which also suggested further review of the system.
When Telles-Irvin took over in October 2004 as vice president of Student Affairs, she postponed that investigation for two years.
"I had many things to attend to, so that really wasn't the number one priority," she said.
In July 2006, Telles-Irvin convened the Student Conduct Code Committee, which was also comprised of students, faculty and staff.
The committee would evaluate the judicial system along with the honor code, which deals with academic misconduct, and Conduct Code, which deals with behavioral misconduct.
In a Thursday phone interview, John Clayton Brett, a student on the 2006 committee, said he was disappointed with the committee's responses to his input and decided to leave before it produced its final recommendations.
He said he didn't think the subcommittee he was on solicited enough student input.
Steve Hagen, an associate professor of physics on the committee, also said in a Thursday phone interview that while the committee sought student opinion, most students weren't interested in some of the issues the committee was dealing with.
After about a year of meetings, discussion and research, the committee produced a report that recommended UF eliminate the Honor Court's ability to hear academic dishonesty cases and clarify its alcohol policy, which was unclear on specifics regarding games or containers encouraging binge drinking.
A few of the committee's recommendations were incorporated into UF's Conduct Code in June 2007 following a board vote, but the rest of the recommendations would have to wait.
Meanwhile, then-Dean of Students Gene Zdziarski began writing the new codes that would eventually be posted on UF's Web site this past summer.
Zdziarski said he originally planned to post the codes in April but decided that students would think UF was trying to avoid attention by introducing the changes at the end of the school year as students were leaving.
Instead, they were posted July 30, with a little more than a week left in summer B. The comment period on the proposed changes to the codes was set at the usual two weeks but was eventually extended to 44 days after widespread student reaction.
Students would put that time to good use. They met with administrators, sent e-mails and letters, spoke at Student Senate meetings and even started a petition to oppose the changes.
The outpouring was more than Telles-Irvin said she'd ever seen over a regulation change.
"It's so fascinating," she said.
"You have 15 regulations and it's come down to just alcohol, which, of course, from my perspective, starts to make me wonder and worry about what's really going on out there."
At the heart of the controversy was a section of the Conduct Code that attempts to curb alcohol consumption.
The problem, many students said, was that the definition of a university activity included "a social event or other activity, wherever located, hosted by a member of the University community where other members of the University community are in attendance."
To some students, it seemed that an off-campus party with kegs or beer pong hosted and attended by UF students would violate UF's Conduct Code.
Telles-Irvin admitted the wording was unclear and ultimately eliminated the clause, but she said it was never UF's intent to punish students for legal off-campus drinking.
"We've never gone into the private home of a student and addressed a keg, or a drinking game, or anything like that," said Chris Loschiavo, director of the newly named Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution, formerly Judicial Affairs.
According to information provided by Loschiavo, there were about 4,200 violations of the conduct code in the past two academic years. Of those, 113 were for off-campus incidents. Except for DUIs, none of those violations related to alcohol.
Kellie Dale, Student Senate president, said even though the current administration may not have intended to apply the code as it read, an administration 10 years from now could decide to enforce it differently, and she didn't want to take that chance.
Ultimately, students seemed to get the changes they wanted.
"The same rights that you're afforded now, you'll be afforded in the future," Student Body President Kevin Reilly said after the board approved the new codes.
Revisions to the Student Honor Code also significantly changed the role of the Honor Court.
As of last week, the court, established in 1914, no longer hears cases academic dishonesty, such as plagiarism or cheating.
According to UF records, only 22 cases out of 1,095 have been heard before the court since August of 2001.
Under the new codes, the other options available to students charged with violating the codes, including the Student Conduct Committee, will still be available and most of the panels will now be required to have a majority of students.
Ultimately, because the court is part of the Student Body Constitution, and changes to it require a vote of the Student Senate and the student body, its future role may not be decided until the spring, when students would likely be able to vote on a proposal, Reilly said.
Honor Court Chancellor Jason Zimmerman said he is excited about the future role of the court.
"We want to help the Student Body and we're here to be a resource to the Student Body, and the university, but we're just not being used," Zimmerman said.
