The number of liquor law violations and medical transfers reported in the first two weeks of class at Boston University has dropped 50 percent compared to 2011, university officials said.
For the second year, BU is monitoring students’ alcohol use and weekend activities by publishing statistics on underage alcohol, noise, university and state violations every week.
“Our approach is one of harm reduction,” said Dr. David McBride, director of Student Health Services, in an email interview. “Our desire is to limit the negative consequences associated with the unhealthy use of alcohol — not, necessarily, to eliminate alcohol use by college students altogether.”
Based on techniques used in a multi-campus study done by the University of California on alcohol-risk management, McBride said BU worked with the BU Police Department, Boston Police Department and Brookline Police Department to limit the sales of alcohol to underage students.
BU has also established “party patrols” in effort to establish an atmosphere of responsible behavior in the neighborhoods around campus. McBride said he hopes these patrols will deter students from behaving irresponsibly.
College of Arts and Sciences freshman Maxim Bazik said the expanded police presence will not deter underage students from drinking and might have negative consequences for BU.
“I think more police will just mean more people getting arrested and a bad reputation for BU,” Bazik said. “I don’t think just putting more police out is really going to solve the problem.”
Bazik, who lives in Claflin Hall in West Campus, said he has not heard of any problems pertaining to alcohol in his dorm yet, but students should figure out for themselves what they can personally handle drinking.
“People are going to have to learn that — what to drink and how much to drink — on their own,” he said. “That’s not something that you can really force on people.”
Katherine Mchugh, a sophomore in the College of General Studies who lives in South Campus, said older students are more aware of the policies and laws for drinking so they do not get in trouble as often.
“I feel like it’s mostly the freshman dorms that have the ambulances outside of them, not the off-campus [residences],” she said. “The older kids just know how to hide it more.”
Riley said the students who go to the hospital and consume a lot of alcohol participate in risky behavior and put themselves in dangerous situations.
“In blood alcohol level, the average for them has been very high — more than double the legal limit, and it’s generally underage people,” he said.
McBride, a member of the Alcohol Task Force at BU, said SHS provides resources such as an annual online intervention for first-year students, as well as distribution of alcohol awareness information.
For students who have received violations related to alcohol, McBride said SHS provides an individualized program with a counselor called Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students, as well as substance abuse assessments and recommended treatments.
CAS sophomore Yissel Rodriguez said extra police presence and violation consequences might not dissuade undergraduates from continuing to drink.
“If you know someone who is legal, you can get your liquor from [him or her],” she said. “Maybe if they were stricter, less people would go to the hospital, or if they made a bigger deal about it at matriculation.”
Mchugh said stricter policies might scare people, and students will just drink more privately. She said her friends who go to New York state universities do not receive as much attention from officials about alcohol-related activities.
McBride said if students chose to drink, they should do so responsibly by setting limits before going out, staying with friends, alternating between alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks and speaking up if someone is drinking too much.
“All of these efforts are aimed at decreasing the likelihood that students will choose to drink dangerously and suffer harm,” he said.
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