U. says alcohol awareness is on the rise

It's a question of whether the glass is half empty of half full. Faced with three alcohol-related hospitalizations last month, University officials are going with the latter, expressing optimism that the incidents are a sign that more students are willing to seek medical attention, not that more students are simply engaging in binge drinking. "It's not that the problem has gotten worse," said Kate Ward-Gaus, adviser to the Drug and Alcohol Resource Team student group. "It's that students are getting the help that they need." There were at least three alcohol-related hospitalizations last month, involving two males and one female living in the Quadrangle. All of the students recovered quickly. The fact that students are willing to get their friends medical help shows that students are becoming better educated about the dangers of alcohol abuse, officials said. "Because students know about the hazards associated with alcohol-poisoning, they're making sure that their friends get the medical attention they need," said Associate Vice Provost for University Life Barbara Cassel. Educational efforts include DART workshops in each of the 12 college houses, Ward-Gaus said, as well as training sessions with all house deans, resident advisers and graduate associates. The 23-member DART is focusing on "getting the message out" that not everyone at Penn drinks, Ward-Gaus said. "If we can [do that], maybe we'll be able to prevent the students who [drink] because they think that's what they're supposed to be doing," she explained. But Ward-Gaus added that the University "acknowledges that some students, no matter what, are going to drink to the level where they need medical attention." University President Judith Rodin, who said she's "horrified" about the recent hospitalizations, noted that administrators can only do so much to solve the problem. "It's not like security where we're putting more cops on the street," she said. "This is about students' behavior." Because of that, Cassel said, it's important to encourage students to seek medical attention when necessary. "In other situations across the nation where students just ignored it, they're the ones who have ended up having serious medical complications," Cassel said, alluding to the high-profile string of alcohol-related deaths last year at colleges across the country. Ward-Gaus said DART hasn't changed any of its programming because of the hospitalizations, but more groups are now trying to schedule workshops. Besides education efforts, a recent University report on the issue made many policy recommendations on how to reduce binge drinking, defined as five drinks in an hour for men and four drinks for women. The report made a sweeping set of suggestions, including improving data collection on binge drinking, notifying parents after any alcohol-related incident and scheduling more classes on Fridays to reduce heavy drinking on Thursday nights. It also suggested the hiring of a coordinator to oversee and administer the University's academic, disciplinary and medical responses to problem drinkers, and to offer a more non-alcoholic programming to students who might otherwise drink. Daily Pennsylvanian staff writer Edward Sherwin contributed to this article.