Fewer Stanford students are going to the emergency room because of alcohol poisoning than in previous years, according to statistics provided by the Stanford University Department of Public Safety (SUDPS) and Vaden Health Center. But many of the cases reported this year involve not only freshmen but also upperclassmen and graduate students.

The statistics also indicate that the number of Stanford students cited by SUDPS for underage drinking has increased and that fewer Stanford students are being cited for driving under the influence on campus.

ALCOHOL POISONING

Thirty-five cases of alcohol poisoning that required transportation to an emergency room have occurred on campus this year as of late May, according to Ralph J. Castro, manager of the Substance Abuse Prevention Program at Vaden Health Center.

Castro said the number of these alcohol poisoning incidents has been decreasing dramatically since the 2004-2005 academic year, when 119 cases were reported. Ninety-three cases of alcohol poisoning were documented for 2005-2006, and 54 cases were reported for 2006-2007.

“Basically with regard to other schools, Stanford students tend to be more responsible in regards to the frequency and quantity of alcohol use across the board,” Castro said.

Castro said his statistics represent a collection of information from a variety of sources on campus, including SUDPS, residence deans and the Freshman Dean’s Office.

The largest number of alcohol poisoning incidents is traditionally reported in the fall, Castro said. Twenty of the 35 cases reported this year occurred during autumn quarter.

“What we now know is that, among current sophomores and freshmen, about three out of four students were not regular drinkers in high school,” Castro said. “That’s three-quarters [of incoming students] who don’t really have a lot of experience with alcohol, and it takes tremendous amounts of education to understand the physiological aspects of alcohol on the body and how to make good decisions.”

But Castro said the relative inexperience of freshman drinkers cannot fully account for the high volumes of alcohol poisoning incidents at the beginning of the school year. Although freshmen made up about half of the 20 cases reported this fall, the other half occurred among upperclassmen and graduate students.

“Upperclassmen have problems,” Castro said. “It’s definitely reflected in our numbers.”

POLICE CITATIONS

Fewer Stanford students have been cited for driving under the influence of alcohol on campus in recent years, according to SUDPS statistics. And of the nine Stanford students cited for drunk driving on campus so far this year, Castro said five of them were graduate students.

But many non-students driving onto campus are being cited with greater frequency, as are underage drinkers. Although 13 Stanford students were issued minor-in-possession (MIP) citations in 2005-2006, this number more than doubled in 2006-2007 with 37 citations. This year, 30 students so far have been cited for MIP violations.

Stanford Chief of Police Laura Wilson said her officers have also cited many more non-Stanford students for underage drinking on campus, including 32 this year. Wilson said these numbers suggest her officers are seeing a fair number of off-campus students, including high school students, who obtain alcohol despite University guidelines that restrict campus parties to registered students.

Wilson said that her department is aware that a considerable amount of underage drinking occurs on campus, and officers will cite students who appear to be drinking underage or clearly drunk in public. But with as few as four and as many as eight officers on duty on any given night, Wilson said that police generally focus on responding to high risk incidents like alcohol poisoning or allegations of abuse or sexual assault.

“If someone wants to drink, they’re going to drink,” Wilson said. “That’s why the University is focused more on a health and wellness approach.”

Wilson said Stanford has a particular culture with regard to drinking that seems better suited for educational measures, rather than strict enforcement in ensuring students are safe when consuming alcohol. Wilson said that enforcement is only one tool in dealing with drinking.

“It’s about their safety, not about their punishment,” Wilson said. “Are there times when people go to jail? Yes, there are. But if you look at the number of people actually cited . . . it tends to be roughly the same if not more of students being transported [to emergency rooms] rather than being arrested.”

Nevertheless, Wilson said there still needs to be some oversight.

“We enforce state law,” Wilson said. “We don’t enforce University policy.”

UNIVERSITY POLICY

The University’s approach to alcohol is largely in line with the Fundamental Standard, Castro said. It assumes students are going to make the right choice, and Stanford develops policies with this in mind.

“We need to give students benefit of the doubt,” Castro said. “That basic understanding of how we perceive student behavior is different from other schools.”

Castro said other schools assume students will make the wrong choice when drinking, and administrators will enact heavy-handed measures to deter risky behavior. Resident Assistants (RAs) at these schools can be extensions of the enforcement piece, confiscating alcohol or reporting any violations to the police, which Castro said may encourage students to avoid reporting problems for fear of punishment.

Castro said that Stanford instead places a strong emphasis on education, encouraging students to look out for one another and training residence staff to identify and monitor dangerous situations like alcohol poisoning. He said an alcohol training module was introduced this year to train residence staff and fellows to better identify risky and reckless behaviors involving alcohol, and for the last two years incoming freshman have been required to complete “AlcoholEdu,” which seeks to educate students about alcohol consumption.

“I do get the sense that our students, particularly student staff like RAs and PHEs [peer health educators], are being more responsive and taking to heart the message that if in doubt, call 9-1-1,” Wilson said. “We’re seeing a little less fear that someone’s going to get a friend in trouble and a little more realization that a friend is already in trouble.”

Although cases of alcohol poisoning are in decline at Stanford, Castro said he is troubled by the increasing consumption of hard liquor among college students, which he said places them at very high risk of alcohol poisoning.

“We’ve been very lucky at Stanford,” Castro said. “We’ve never had an alcohol poisoning death.”

But Castro warned that the situation could change drastically.

“All it’s going to take is one serious alcohol fatality on campus for the University to really take a look at our approach,” Castro said. “We give so much responsibility to students to make that choice, we hope they embrace and respect that honor so that we can continue to treat them like adults.”