<p>*"…Bennett blames the Berkeley Student Cooperative for establishing house rules that discouraged students from promptly calling police or paramedics by requiring them to ask permission from house leaders to make the calls, and to do so only as a last resort.</p>
<p>This “created a ‘wild-west’ environment at Cloyne, where residents believed that ‘anything goes’ and there would be no accountability for illegal drug trafficking or abuse,” the suit states…" *</p>
<p>Sounds reasonable, depending on the extent of UC control over Cloyne. The suit’s based on the assumption that he wouldn’t require the current extent of his care if Cloyne hadn’t had such a ridiculous 911 policy - the kids are idiots for not violating it, but it seems unlikely that the situation would have arisen if the policy weren’t in place.</p>
<p>(I do have internal conflicts about the ethics of keeping ~vegetative people alive at such considerable expense, but that’s a separate issue).</p>
<p>I think this rests on how the situation was exacerbated by the stupid policy (it was seriously moronic, and pulled out of somebody’s arse). If the residents’ only reason for delaying for hours was the /policy/, then fine, the administration is partially at fault for the policy. Otherwise, UC shouldn’t have to pay.</p>
<p>Also, the process of enacting such policies should be examined. Is it particular to each co-op and democratically passed by each co-op’s house councils? Is it even mandated by the co-op general management for each co-op to have policies? As far as I know, the students are the main governors of the co-ops; if the UC’s involvement in their management and rule-setting is minimal, they are not as accountable as this article seems to suggest.</p>
<p>Finally, this whole thing was born out of some very illegal substance abuse. If anything, a state-funded public institution should not have to use taxpayer’s money (that could be put towards causes like financial aid or facility upgrade, for example) to pay for an /adult/'s misdemeanour. Particularly one that was illegal in the first place.</p>