GUSA representatives met Wednesday with Assistant Vice President for Student Health James Welsh to discuss the creation of a forum for students and administration to discuss the university’s new party and alcohol regulations.

Welsh met with Eden Schiffmann (COL ’08), the newly elected GUSA Senate speaker, and Matt Stoller (COL ’08), a student association senator and an administrator of the Facebook group “Work Hard, Play Hard — GU Students for Stopping the Madness.”

Schiffmann said Stoller came up with the idea for the committee and that the two of them approached Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson, who tapped Welsh to co-chair the new committee along with an as-yet-undetermined student.

The Wednesday meeting was a “preliminary conversation,” Welsh said. “We discussed how best to move forward on developing an effective vehicle for students, administrators and faculty to continue a dialogue about our alcohol policies.”

Stoller said he is pleased with Welsh’s appointment.

“From a student standpoint, [he] is relatively unbiased in the alcohol debate as he was not involved in setting the policies and is not related to the student affairs aspect of the administration.”

Schiffmann said the panel would be more transparent than previous ones.

“What will make this commission different from past discussions of the alcohol policy will be that it will be open, on the record and accountable — we hope.”

Welsh said about 16 people would serve on the committee, half of whom would be students.

According to Stoller, faculty who had participated in the 2004 FRIENDS Initiative to reform alcohol policies and representatives from the Disciplinary Review Committee, the Office of Residence Life, the Department of Public Safety and the Code of Conduct Board may serve on the committee. He said the group might receive input from university lawyers.

Possible student members would include a GUSA senator as co-chair and student representatives from GERMS, the Residents of Color Council and resident assistants, Stoller said.

“The rest of the slots would be filled by an open application process aimed at recruiting the most diverse selection of students possible — underclassmen, upperclassmen, transfers, drinkers and non-drinkers alike,” Stoller said. “We want to make sure that as many people have the ability to get their voices heard and that these policies can be freely debated, so that when we do make the recommendations, and if any are implemented or not implemented, the student body can at least feel they had a stake in the creation of them.”

Welsh said no specific goals or plans for a report have been set for the group.

“Our intent is to provide an effective vehicle for continued conversation about our policies and the impact they have on our students’ health and safety as well as on social life and campus culture,” he said.

Schiffmann said the commission would only be formed if there were sufficient guarantees for public input.

The timeline for the formation of the group is not certain, but Welsh said, “I hope that we can convene an initial meeting in the next two to three weeks.”