Judicial Affairs and Meditation Services will now only punish students by grounding them in their rooms, according to JAMS Director Tatsura Lurita.
Lurita said she implemented the changes because the Heads Up alcohol and substance abuse education program had a 100 percent rate of repeat offenders.
"Students were paying $60 to sleep in a class at 8 a.m. and then would go out drinking the next night," she said. "By grounding them, we can be sure that we know where they are."
Lurita said JAMS would only permit punished students to leave their rooms to go to use the restrooms, go to class and eat in the Terrace Dining Room.
"Basically, we're talking about 16 to 18 hours a day of confinement," she said.
Resident assistants and resident directors would be in charge of supervising the students, according to a source in Housing and Dining Programs who asked to remain anonymous.
"The extra supervision would be at the student's expense," the source said. "We're talking about a ballpark range of $1,000 to $5,000, depending on the length of the punishment."
Lurita said she plans to punish people anywhere from one day to two weeks, depending on the severity of the crime.
Student Advocacy Center Director Hott Sansen said JAMS just doesn't get it.
"We would rather waste our time paying $60 than waste our time paying $1,000 to $5,000," he said.
For extremely dangerous cases, such as being caught smoking marijuana on the track behind the Beeghly Chemistry Building, Lurita said she is working with Public Safety to obtain GPS tracking devices.
"If a student is in an area they shouldn't be at any given time, an alarm would go off in Public Safety's dispatch center," she said. "Five Public Safety officers would then canvass the campus in their new three-wheeled scooters to locate the student."
Lurita said there would be grave consequences should this happen.
"We're going to double the punishment and we might not even let the students go to class," she said.
Students currently living off-campus will serve their punishment in a special area on Letts Hall's north terrace level - an area susceptible to unsanitary flooding conditions.
"We're working out those details with Housing and Dining," Lurita said.
Sansen said he expects to see a sudden spike in SAC visits due to the new policy.
"I've asked [Student Government President] Voe Jidulich to ask the Undergraduate Senate to approve emergency supplemental appropriations to SAC because we'll need the money," he said.
Jidulich said he doesn't expect the Senate to take action.
"They're still debating smoking," he said.
