In seven weeks of school, seven students have been sent to the hospital emergency room for alcohol poisoning.
While the University has not tracked this number in the past, Kathy Humphrey, vice president for Student Development, said of past years, “We were not doing this every week.”
She explained, “This (drinking) is an activity that can leave students dead. I need that message to get across.”
Of the seven students, the ages broke down to four freshmen, one sophomore, one junior and one senior.
“I can’t really say it’s a lack of knowledge,” Humphrey said “I think it’s poor decision-making.”
Humphrey explained that in most cases, friends of the intoxicated students have requested help from a resident adviser. She encouraged friends and peers to be just as alert when the drinking takes place.
Once a student is taken to the hospital for an alcohol-related issue, the parents or legal guardians are always contacted if the student is under 21 or classified as their dependent.
Whenever a student is sent to the hospital for alcohol-related matters, the incident is referred to the University Judicial Board, which then requires the student to attend a counseling session at the Student Health and Counseling Center.
Humphrey said that the purpose of the judicial hearing is simply to provide a “mechanism to make sure the student gets counseling.”
Counselor Michael Gottfried, Ph.D., explained that in the session, he tries to get the student to evaluate his or her use of alcohol. For some students, the excessive drinking is a result of inexperience with alcohol, Gottfried said. “This usually happens with hard alcohol,” he added.
On the other hand, for some students, the incident is a sign of underlying issues that can require additional counseling and treatment.
“We try to get the students to be mindful of why they are drinking,” Gottfried explained.
He noted that students handle the hospital incident in different ways. “For some, it’s a big wake-up call,” he said, adding that other students think it’s something that just happens.
