Although 63 percent of Boston University students do not believe alcohol consumption is a problem on campus, 171 students were treated at hospitals for “dangerous intoxication” levels in the last academic year, according to statistics gathered by the campus police and the School of Public Health.
“Students don’t realize when they make personal decisions about alcohol that there are consequences,” said Student Health Services Director Dr. David McBride. “They don’t think about the possible bad outcomes from the alcohol-related decisions they make.”
SHS reported the figures about drinking at BU in its November email newsletter. The BU Police Department last year changed its incident logs to keep separate reports for intoxicated students who are transported to hospitals, and the SPH’s Youth Alcohol Prevention Center conducted an email survey last February, McBride said.
The SHS newsletter states alcohol abuse is the biggest public health problem at BU and that most students hospitalized after drinking were in “serious condition,” and some could have died without medical treatment.
“BU is extremely concerned about safety of students,” McBride said. “I’ve worked at other institutions, and I think there really is an atmosphere among BU administrators that we are concerned about students’ health and safety.”
The BUPD altered its system to keep alcohol-related reports separate from medical-attention reports to get a “clear-cut” representation of alcohol-related statistics, said officer Peter Shin.
Last year, the first one with the new tracking method in place, the department reported 71 percent of the students brought to hospitals for intoxication were underage. As of Nov. 11, written reports indicated that number is down 5 percent from last year on the same date, Shin said.
Students working to change dangerous drinking habits include those on an alcohol task force led by McBride. The group aims to educate students about alcohol consumption and BU’s alcohol policies, said task force member Mark DiCristofaro, a College of Communication senior and former Student Union vice president.
“We are not one of those groups that say, ‘Drinking is bad,'” DiCristofaro said. “Our message is that we know you drink, but this is how you can act responsibly.”
The group is trying to create a more open dialogue between the BUPD and students, he said.
“I think that [excessive drinking] is a problem enough to deserve more attention from BU, which is what we’re working towards,” DiCristofaro said. “We want students and the administration working together.”
Shin said while the BUPD hosts alcohol education events throughout the year, they are designed to mainly be reactive, not preventative, when it comes to excessive drinking.
Jenna Nierstedt contributed reporting for this story.
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
