Underage drinking has long been a social norm among college students, and DePauw is no different. But this year, the university has seen an alarming amount of first-year students sent to the hospital as a result of consuming far too much alcohol.
The university saw 21 students transported to the hospital as a result of over-intoxication during the 2011-2012 academic year. Ten of them first-year students. But the numbers-especially among first-years-have spiked. One semester into the 2012-2013 academic year, the emergency room has already seen 27 intoxicated students, including 21 freshman.
Director of Public Safety Angela Nally, who has worked in the department for 15 years, said the rise of hospital visits has never been this great.
"This is by far the biggest increase in the number of interactions and severity of the incidents," Nally said. "BAC's are exceptionally high as well as the number of names going through community standards."
Nally said almost one-third of the freshman class has gone through community standards so far for alcohol-related violations.Resident assistant Ben Hazen, a junior, said he has experienced such problems with first-year students. He has come upon several situations where he was forced to call Public Safety, which ultimately lead to the individual being transported to the hospital.
Hazen notes a common characteristic among those for whom he requests medical assistance: excessive vomiting and the inability to formulate words.
"A lot of times people feel the need to show off and go drink-for-drink," Hazen said. "That is a major problem."
One first-year female student, who wishes to remain anonymous, offers her experience the night she was transported to the hospital. The student noted that she began drinking around 8 p.m. that evening, on top of drinking at multiple fraternities that night.
"I went into the night with the wrong mindset, she said. "I just kept drinking and drinking and didn't seem to care where the night took me."
Nally said Public Safety has not been able to pinpoint a reason for the alarming increase in alcohol-related hospital transports.
"It has to do with the ebb and flow of each class," she said. "Each one has different characteristics Public Safety will have to work with."
Hazen, on the other hand, believes the university's social scene is playing a part in the issue.
"I believe the stem of the drinking problem is the culture of our university," Hazen said. "They see we are 12th in the party school rankings and many feel an obligation to validate that."
Nally said that Public Safety is working alongside the Office of Student Life division in an attempt to find a remedy for this problem. Nally didn't note specific changes that might be made, but said there would be, "a continued evaluation of what we can do."
Hazen said he has not been notified of any protocol changes RAs must make regarding alcohol-related situations. He doesn't expect policy to change, however he said he would not be surprised if punishments became more severe. The anonymous first-year student who went to the hospital believes a policy change must happen to quell the issue.
"I believe the punishment you are handed from community standards certainly affects the drinking habits of students," she said. After being placed on probation for the remainder of the year, the student felt community standards was not-so-subtly pointing out that her drinking routine needed to change.
Students who violate the alcohol policy while on probation face a possible lengthening of their probationary period, the inability to participate in greek recruitment, or even expulsion from the university.
However, the student believes minor violations, such as warnings or very short probationary periods, are not accomplishing the goal of changing students' drinking habits.
Nally hopes this behavior doesn't become a pattern for the class of 2016.
"I fear that our first-year class has normalized this behavior," Nally said. "I fear they think this type of behavior is normal at DePauw."