This weekend, several serious alcohol-related incidents occurred on campus, which may result in those involved being subjected to disciplinary probation.
Dean of Students Matt Burns was concerned with this weekend’s events.
“There were a number of alcohol transports, meaning students transported to the hospital because of their alcohol consumption and that one of them was particularly serious,” Burns said.
“It was an extremely serious situation – it wasn’t your typical sleep-it-off in the hospital kind of transport,” he said in regard to the most severe incident.
The source of the alcohol in each of these incidents has not been released.
“Any fraternity or Greek organization’s culpability in any of the incidents has yet to be determined,” Burns said.
Although the students’ identities have not been released, Burns said that at least some of those involved in the incidents were freshmen.
In the case of the most severe incident, the intoxicated student lost consciousness in the Pit and his friends called security, according to UR Security Investigator Dan Lafferty.
“That’s the right thing to do,” Lafferty said of the students’ call to security. “This kid was in a bad way. He really was.”
Neither Lafferty nor Burns could comment on the exact number of alcohol-related incidents that occurred this weekend, although eight separate alcohol-related incidents were recorded in the Daily Activity Report.
“The number of the younger kids -the 17 and 18-year-olds – is concerning for us as well as the Deans’ Office,” Lafferty said.
Burns explained possible disciplinary implications.
“For a first-time alcohol policy violation, if it’s a lower-level one, you could probably expect some level of disciplinary probation and an educational assignment,” he said. “We typically use a program called ‘Alcohol.edu.'”
The level of sanctions may vary, depending on the severity of the incident, according to Burns.
“There are certain things – even in serious first-time offenses – that might bump a person to a different level,” Burns said. “Very often there are circumstances surrounding an alcohol transport that involve other people who might also face judicial charges.”
Burns said that despite the lack of frequent drinking on the Fraternity Quad this semester, the administration is assessing students’ drinking behaviors.
“There are a whole bunch of fears out there now that there isn’t so much drinking going on in the Fraternity Quad, and one of them is that drinking will go underground,” Burns said. “At least when people drink on the Fraternity Quad, you could see the people who drank too much and were in trouble.”
Those fears, however, have not proven true yet, according to Burns. “The people who drink too much tend to draw attention to themselves in different areas, so we’re really not seeing anything moving underground,” he said.
“What we might be seeing is some other changes in people’s drinking behaviors – with whom they drink, what happens when they drink, what they drink, all those things.”
“We’re trying to pay attention to in trying to find out what other trends might we be looking for now that people aren’t drinking on the Fraternity Quad as much as they used to,” he added.
Yunis can be reached at tyunis@campustimes.org.
