Alcohol sends Penn student to hospital

In a separate incident, an 18-year-old was cited by police for drinking. One student was cited for underage drinking and another was hospitalized for an alcohol-related illness over the weekend, according to University Police. On Thursday night, police received a report of a man committing a theft on the 3900 block of Spruce Street. When officers arrived on the scene at about 10:30 p.m., they found an 18-year-old male University student and determined that he had stolen a letter off of a fraternity house. The student was severely intoxicated, "staggering around and acting incoherently," police said. Although the fraternity did not press charges against the student for stealing the letter, police cited him for underage drinking. Two days later, at around 1:15 a.m., police found a 19-year-old male University student lying in bushes on the 4100 block of Spruce Street. When the officers saw that the student was not fully conscious and that he had been drinking, they transported him to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. The student was not cited because it was a "medical emergency situation," according to University Police Chief Maureen Rush. "We don't cite people when they're absolutely a hospital case," Rush said. "It has not been our policy, nor will it be our policy, to pick somebody up, take them to the hospital and cite them." The incidents were both turned over to the Office of Student Conduct for review. OSC Director Michele Goldfarb said Thursday's incident will be investigated for both underage drinking and theft, but the student who was hospitalized early Saturday morning will not be penalized. "It's our policy not to have disciplinary action taken [against] students taken to the hospital," Goldfarb said. University officials have been stressing the policy of putting students' safety ahead of all other concerns since they made the alcohol policy more stringent last month. Student leaders had expressed concern that the stricter policy would make students less likely to bring their friends to the hospital for fear of being cited for underage drinking. University officials made the policy changes following a weekend that saw the death of University alumnus Michael Tobin, who fell down a set of stairs behind the former Phi Gamma Delta house at 3619 Locust Walk after drinking for several hours. The state police's Liquor Control Enforcement agency did not cite any Penn students at events over the weekend, which included Skimmer on the Schuylkill River -- one of the events singled out by the administration for increased enforcement of alcohol policy regulations. Police handed out three citations in the weekend immediately following the announcement of the new policy and none last weekend, when the campus was fairly empty because of the Passover and Easter holidays. University officials have said the number of incidents in past weeks has been normal for this time of year.