Ignorance Can Be Lethal

Last Saturday night I was witness to a sordid train of events. The identities of those involved will not be divulged. Upon returning from a poetry reading, my friend and I entered her common room to discover an intoxicated, unconscious pre-frosh lying on the floor in a pool of her own vomit. My friend was not this poor girl's host, and neither were any of her roommates. In fact, this girl had been invited to consume some illegally acquired alcohol by another pre-frosh, who was staying in the room because her sister is one of my friend's roommates (although the sister was away for the weekend). The intoxicated pre-frosh had been discovered only moments earlier, when some other of my friend's roommates returned from their evening out. Soon, the pre-frosh's hosts were summoned, as well as the pre-frosh who had concocted this ill-starred soiree, and a dozen-odd people had collected to try and address the situation. This is when the story becomes worrisome. The girl showed no signs of improvement in a half-hour of care and gentle attempts to revive her. From what little experience I've had with this kind of thing, it appeared that what she needed most was someone to stay up with her while she slept it off. However, it might have been more serious than that, and here we reach the crux of the problem.

Of the dozen people in the room trying to take care of this poor girl, no one knew what would be the repercussions of taking her to University Health Services (UHS). Would she get in trouble? Would my friend and her roommates be punished by the University for something they had no part in? Would the pre-frosh who had originally acquired the alcohol have their standing here next year thrown into jeopardy? Would the hosts be the victims of disciplinary action for not monitoring their pre-frosh's every action, thus letting her drink herself into oblivion?

It was unclear, and as a result, instead of being anxious to do everything to ensure the safety of this girl, all of us were preoccupied to a greater or lesser degree with our possible liabilities. In the absence of any certain knowledge, the extent of possible punishment, in our minds, went beyond dismissal from Harvard to possible legal action.

It is a dangerous state of affairs when a Harvard student's fear of University disciplinary or legal action discourages or prevents him or her from taking action, such as bringing a drunken underage student or pre-frosh to UHS--an act that might potentially be critical to that person's safety. Thus, since the University's top priority is the safety of its students (and pre-frosh), there does, apparently, exist a policy that no disciplinary action will result from taking a dangerously inebriated person to UHS.

However, if among a dozen people in a room last Saturday night, not a single one of us was certain that this was the case, then this presents a problem. I personally, and the rest of us, I think, too, repent that we were not better informed. However, the fact that not one of us knew indicates that the problem may be due to more than just my own ignorance or that of other isolated students. It may also be due to serious deficiencies in publicizing such a policy whose very effectiveness lies in whether it is widely understood. A note in the infrequently-read University alcohol policy hand-book is not sufficient for such an important policy.

Its very existence is certainly a good first step for the University to take in ensuring that everyone who might need medical care is taken to UHS. It should eliminate any inhibition that students might have about taking an intoxicated fellow student to UHS. But if it is so poorly publicized that no one knows about it--and no one that night was sure even of the policy for Harvard students, much less pre-frosh--then the policy is ineffective. The fear of disciplinary action still discourages people from making sure that a fellow student whose alcohol consumption may have reached dangerous levels receives all appropriate medical attention

We all know that there are problems with UHS and with the University Administration. Many people have criticism of the standard drinking laws in the United States as well. However, whatever anyone's opinion on these topics, I think no one would argue that the University's first priority is to keep its students--and future students--safe. The degree to which the University is committed to this is evidenced by the policy that taking an intoxicated student to UHS will not result in disciplinary action. However, if the application of this policy can suffer as serious a failure as it did last Saturday night, when a dozen students were all scared to take critical action, then this policy needs to be much better publicized by the administration, if it is truly determined to make every effort to keep students safe.

Ways to do this could be through this very mouthpiece of popular information consumption, making sure that entryway tutors announce it at the mandatory meetings at the beginning of each year, or coming up with a more user-friendly interface for the University alcohol policy. In any case, though, the events I witnessed last Saturday night lead me to believe that the current state of affairs may be a tragedy waiting to happen. Dan Epstein Dan Epstein '99 is a Slavic languages and literatures concentrator in Quincy House.