Almost a year after a report to the Syracuse University Senate revealed that ambulances were taking several students per week to the emergency room because of alcohol problems, concrete data on the number of students who are hospitalized for intoxication is still unavailable.

Last March, Pamela Peter, the director of the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities, reported to the University Senate’s student life committee that ambulances were taking about a dozen students a week to the emergency room for being dangerously drunk.

Additionally, the committee in October released a report based on the March briefing.

“The number of students that were transported to the hospital because of alcohol intoxication ranged somewhere in the high 200s, with an average of 10-12 transports weekly,” the report from the Committee on Student Life stated. “With over 2 months left of classes, this number approached the total number of transports that were reported in the full 2014-2015 academic year.”

Despite the report being released, specific and current numbers on just how many students have been hospitalized for being intoxicated are still unavailable, Peter said.

Peter told The Daily Orange in April of last year she thought dangerous drinking was on the rise at SU.

“The earlier reports were just numbers,” Peter said in a recent interview. “They didn’t say anything. I’m putting together information that will say something and explain what those numbers mean and what we’re seeing with student behavior, how student behavior is or is not changing.”

John Sardino, associate chief of SU’s Department of Public Safety, recently said over-intoxication is indeed a serious issue on campus. He said 10 to 12 ambulance trips a week for over-intoxication undersells the problem, particularly at the beginning and end of a semester.

“It’s pretty scary when I look at the reports … and see that we’ve had 12, 14, 15 students transported to the hospital over a two-day period because of alcohol poisoning,” Sardino said.

The student life committee report stated that several students taken to the hospital last year had more than 0.3 percent in blood alcohol level, including one student who had a blood alcohol content of 0.37 percent. BAC levels above 0.3 percent are life-threatening, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

The concrete number of medical transports due to intoxication at SU hasn’t been composed since the Senate report. The Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities is normally tasked with this, but Peter said she hasn’t had the time to compile the data.

Peter also said the office is short-staffed, but that hiring new staff sooner rather than later is one of her main priorities.

“I had a staff member leave last semester and we haven’t filled the spot yet,” she said. “Again, when you’re meeting with students every half-hour, there’s not a lot of time to do other things.”

The last time exact numbers of student hospitalizations from alcohol intoxication were reported was in 2012. The reason for the information gap, Peter said, is related to the office’s desire to provide more specific data.

Brianna Sparks, a DPS officer, said dangerous drinking happens both on and off campus, mostly in the residence halls and at bars in the Marshall Street area, which are part of her coverage area on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.

When students need help because of over intoxication, they rarely get charged with a crime, Sparks said.

Instead, most students are referred to Peter’s Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities. On both first and second alcohol offenses — which include possession and intoxication — students must complete “educational projects” such as essays or the “Think About It” online program.

José Marrero Rosado, chair of the Committee on Student Life and a senior biochemistry and anthropology double major, said a follow-up to the October report will most likely be released in April and that his interest in addressing binge drinking stems from the year he worked as a resident advisor.

“The drinking was so constant and so bad,” he said, “it made me think that something needed to be done.”

Published on February 26, 2017 at 8:08 pm

Contact: hsmalach@syr.edu