Michigan recently announced a new program focusing on first-year students which will inform a student's parents after two alcohol violations, or one violation resulting in medical attention or destruction of property.
This announcement follows a reported 13% increase in the reports of alcohol and drug incidents reported on campus. U-M Wellness Director Mary Jo Desprez stated: "We know that first-year students can be an at-risk population... this is really designed to be about health and wellbeing" and added that parent notification would come from the wellness center rather than a disciplinary body.
This program and others like it have received mixed, but largely skeptical, views from students, who believe schools may be unaware of a potentially harmful home situation, and that the policies undermine the idea that college students should begin to be treated as adults.
Right here at Penn, a program was recently announced that aims to bring administrators on ride-alongs to break up parties. Time will tell if these atypical strategies have an impact in incident-reduction, and the U-M administration has stated that the school will be actively evaluating such programs as the year progresses.
The full article can be found at the USA Today College website.