Officials hope to stop unsafe alcohol binges

Administrators will work with students to create a campus-wide dialogue. In the wake of several recent alcohol-related assaults and student hospitalizations, University administrators spent last week meeting with each other and with student leaders to brainstorm possible solutions to binge drinking on and around campus. The issue has become a top priority for the University in the wake of the over-drinking deaths of Louisiana State University freshman Benjamin Wynne and Massachusetts Institute of Technology freshman Scott Krueger. University President Judith Rodin met with top officials from the Department of Public Safety, Residence Life, the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs, the Office of the Vice Provost for University Life and other administrators Monday night to address the problem and discuss possible solutions. The following evening, while Rodin met with students, Director of Police Operations Maureen Rush discussed student over-drinking with representatives of the Greek community. "It might be really the dialogue that will happen beyond what normally happens," Rush said. "It's being spoken about at every level of the University? and at some level all those entities connect." And as part of the administration's attempt to forge a school-wide dialogue on the issue, Wednesday's University Council meeting will be dedicated solely to student drinking and will include students, faculty and administrators, Assistant Vice Provost for University Life Barbara Cassel said. Cassel added that the University Council meeting will be "probably the first conversation about the issues of binge drinking and incivility as it relates to alcohol and other drugs." "The president would like to have a broad series of conversations throughout the University where there is thoughtful discussion about this issue," she said. At issue is how much students drink at one time -- not whether they choose to consume alcohol. "People who choose to drink need to choose an amount which is not going to impair them significantly, that is not going to cause them to be so drunk that they are going to make bad decisions," health educator and Drug and Alcohol Resource Team advisor Kate Ward-Gaus said. She added that students who drink too much "put themselves at risk for getting into fights or being the victim in a fight or the victim in a crime." Binge drinking is defined as having five or more drinks for males or four or more drinks for females in one sitting, according to Ward-Gaus. One drink is equal to a 12-ounce beer, five ounces of wine or a shot of hard liquor. "No matter what your size, five is enough to cause a level of impairment," she said. "You've got enough in your system to start making mistakes." Cassel and other officials stressed that although faculty and administrators must take an active role in attempting to reduce alcohol use, the success of any plan will ultimately depend on student involvement. "In order for anything to work, in order for it to be viable, students have to buy into it," she noted. "For students as a whole, they need to tell the people that they care about when they're worried about them and when they see behavior that they don't like," Ward-Gaus said. "People haven't been challenging one another on that." Rodin's meeting with students, as well as Rush's with various Greek house presidents, were part of the first step in this discussion process. Rush emphasized that she did not meet with the fraternities because she holds them responsible for the problem, but because fraternity presidents are leaders, and "as leaders, we wanted them to help us process the problem." InterFraternity Council President Matt Baker, a College and Engineering senior, credited the meeting with "beginning a partnership" and "opening up a dialogue between us and the police." Other student groups such as the Undergraduate Assembly have also been active in the meetings and in the planning for future discussions. "The UA will work to bring undergrads to [next week's University Council] meeting and hopes to work with other groups, such as Peer Health and the Greek umbrella groups, to address the issue in some [future] day-long educational event," College junior and UA chairperson Noah Bilenker said. Daily Pennsylvanian staff writer Diem Tran contributed to this article.