The debate between the Department of Public Safety and Office of Student Life about how to handle students who get alcohol poisoning on campus continued Tuesday at the Public Safety Advisory Group meeting addressing the topic.
Currently, DPS cites underage students treated for alcohol poisoning while OSL tells students they will not get in trouble for calling in an alcohol-related emergency.
The goal of Tuesday’s meeting was for the advisory group to come to a consensus on what to suggest to DPS concerning the problem of students “being told one thing and then being disciplined in a way totally contrary to that,” said Corey Harmon, group chair and University senior.
No motions were passed. Harmon said the discussion will continue at the next PSAG meeting.
“I don’t think it should go unpunished by any means, but at the same time, I feel that any slight thing that would hinder a student from getting medical assistance really does scare me as a student and as someone on this committee and as a community member,” Harmon said. OSL Director Laura Jones said 1,400 of the nation’s college students die every year of alcohol poisoning.
Harmon said that freshmen are often
inexperienced drinkers and don’t know their limits.
“Once you get to that certain point of drinking, what’s another beer?” Harmon said. “I don’t think they are consciously getting to that point; who would want to get to that point, honestly?”
Later at the meeting, DPS officer Mike Eppli disagreed.
“When we respond to a party with a beer bong and a person next to it on the couch and they’re passed out, I think they are making a conscious decision at that point to consume large amounts of alcohol,” Eppli said.
Harmon suggested students go through a diversion program, such as “bringing together a community circle of people involved in the situation.” The person who had alcohol poisoning, the person who called it in, the resident assistants, the complex director and the janitor who cleaned up the “barf” could all be involved, she said, adding that she believes a roundtable discussion about how the
person’s binge drinking impacted the
University would have a greater impact than a citation.
Facilities Manager for Housing David Rodgers said the custodial staff doesn’t have the time.
“They would be in here every day, and we just don’t have the staffing,” he said. “They’re cleaning up a mountain of vomit every weekend.”
DPS Interim Director Tom Hicks said he looks at the judicial system as an educational process.
“Our job is to consistently enforce the laws and the rules of the University, and if the person was contacted by Eugene Police or any other police agency in the area, they’re going to get a municipal citation,” Hicks said.
DPS officer Scott Cameron said that as a Eugene citizen, he finds it distasteful when “we try to make policies that say that University of Oregon students are sort of above the law on their first time.”
Director of Student Judicial Affairs Chris Loschiavo said he doesn’t
believe it’s valid to compare on- and off-campus housing because the residence halls are more closely scrutinized.
“DPS is allowed basically within the students’ homes, 24/7, monitoring,” Loschiavo said. “We don’t have EPD walking down the halls of apartment buildings, even in Duck’s Village and the Commons, where we know there’s all kinds of issues.
“If even one student would fail to call in for emergency assistance for fear of getting into trouble, that’s one student too many.”
Harmon said she worries that
a student may not want to call in
a drunk friend who already has
several citations for minor in possession, knowing they’ll get into even more trouble.
“They’ll think they’ll probably be fine, they just need to throw up,” Harmon said.
Rodgers and Harmon both said they would like to see a citation the second time but leniency the first.
“If my friend’s out there and they haven’t learned their lesson the first time and they’re drunk again, man, throw the book at them ’cause they’re going to kill my child or somebody else’s child,” Rodgers said. “If they can’t get that lesson and they’re here to learn, it’s like a second drunk driving offense.”
Loschiavo said he thinks “hammering” students with citations could potentially lead to students being afraid to call for help.
But EPD Sgt. Mark Montes said there is little evidence to support such a claim.
“You would not believe the
comments from people that identify themselves as students that have four, five, six, seven, eight
MIPs or open containers and just
say, ‘Go ahead, give me a ticket. It’s just $90,’” Montes said. “So if there’s some way that we hear from
a percentage of students who
say they do have that fear, then I would see some validity in that
perception.”

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