By Hannah Jaenicke
An email sent by the Joint Student-Administrative Alcohol Policy Panel (JSAAPP) on Wednesday stated that almost five percent of the freshman class had been hospitalised in alcohol-related incidents since the beginning of the semester.
Figures released by Director of Safety and Security Tom King show that of the 20 reported alcohol incidents, 12 involved freshmen. Fifteen of the 20 incidents resulted in hospitalization, and of these incidents, ten involved freshmen, two involved Bryn Mawr students, one involved an upperclassman, one involved the guest of a Bryn Mawr student, and one involved a prospective student.
While King stated that he was “encouraged that students are calling [Safety and Security] early and often,” he expressed concern at the numbers of hospitalizations and that students are drinking more hard liquor quicker.
King added that a freshman at Penn State, Joseph Dado, had died as a result of the consumption of hard liquor. Two fraternities, a fraternity member and the roommate of Dado’s sister have since been charged by the police with furnishing the alcohol that lead to Dado’s death in a stairwell in September.
Dean of the College Martha Denney raised the issue of how underage students obtain enough alcohol to result in hospitalization.
King said that if, as anecdotal evidence suggests, alcohol is bought by the freshmen class’ Customs People, then there should be a “serious discussion about what self-governance and the social honor code mean.”
No formal plan has been initiated to address these issues, although Denney explained that “a variety of efforts are under way” in conjunction with the student government. King raised the possibility of alcohol education being undertaken outside of the Customs context.
Student Council Co-President Harrison Haas ‘10 said that it was luck that none of the hospitalisations had been life-threatening, but that “we need to look at how we can stop being lucky and start looking at how we can stop the problem.”
To this effect, an email signed by Haas, SC Co-President Will Harrison ‘10, and the co-chairs of Honor Council and JSAAPP urged students to eat before consuming alcohol and listed the telephone numbers for local food delivery restaurants. The email also called on students to stop doing shots of hard liquor and instead to “consider mixed drinks, or spacing your drinks out so there’s time to enjoy being buzzed in between sober and stumbling drunk.”
In an interview, Haas added that changing certain aspects of campus and party culture could result in safer drinking behaviour. These suggestions included encouraging “a campus that prefers beer to hard alcohol,” ending the policy of dry dances because “they’re pretty awkward, so people use [alcohol] as a social lubricant,” and changing JSAAPP’s policy to allow mixers for alcohol to be bought using JSAAPP funds.
However, he stated that such changes would not solve the current situation as “Swat has drinks at school-funded parties, but kids still go to the hospital.” He added, “you can have fun without drinking at college, but there is often a lot of pressure to drink,” which freshmen could find hard to resist.
Members of the administration emphasised the need to begin conversations with the Haverford community. Denney explained that any discussions would need to include students: “We need people to talk to us.”
This article is © 2008 The Bi-College News. The material on this page is free for personal or educational use, but may not be reproduced, reprinted, republished, redistributed, or otherwise transmitted to a third party without the express written permission of The Bi-College News, 370 Lancaster Ave, Haverford, PA 19041.
Editor's note: Articles that appear in the Last Word section are works of satire.
- ‘Alcohol Party’ Stresses Student Involvement
- Staff Ed — Responses to Alcohol Concerns in the Bi-Co
- New HC Party Policy to be Put to Plenary
- JSAAPP Addresses Parties
- JSAAPP Modifies Alcohol Policy; Policy Will be Up For Approval at Plenary
- A New JSAAPP
- HC Students Debate Alcohol Policy following Lloyd Raid
- Boozing in the Bi-Co: Explaining the Trends
- JSAAPP Plans to Update Party Guidelines
- Wanna Get Away? Well, Don’t Use Alcohol
Related articles
November 24th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
Stick to beer and/or wine coolers. If using rum, note the alcohol level which could be anywhere from 40% alcohol to 75%. Measure the alcohol for each drink, pour it into the mixer and drink the whole thing or stop for the night mid-drink. Don’t drink from punch bowls because even if you did measure and calculate 5% alcohol, which you did not, the part of the punch bowl from which you take yours could be much higher. The drunkest you can get on beer, wine cooler or other 5% beverages is drunker than you want to get. seriously, there is nothing glamorous about vomiting. Don’t get into drinking contests, never worry that you can’t drink as much as somebody else, nor brag about how much you can drink. Drink to enjoy, not to compete.
Be sure to invite non-drinkers whether there will be alcohol or not. It’s not like you’re superior to them because you drink beverages containing ethanol and they don’t.