Alcohol poisoning sends student, visitor to HUP

A University student and an 18-year-old visiting Penn were treated for alcohol-related illnesses in two separtae incidents. A Penn student and an 18-year-old visitor to the University were rushed to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania early Sunday morning after suffering alcohol poisoning in two separate on-campus incidents. University Police transported a male student to HUP after he was found unconscious from alcohol poisoning outside of High Rise South at 12:48 a.m., according to police. Less than 15 minutes later, police and Philadelphia Fire Department personnel responded to a report that an 18-year-old visiting a friend in the Quadrangle had passed out after drinking too much alcohol. The visitor was rushed to HUP. No further information on the incidents was available from University Police or the Office of the Vice Provost for University Life. Prior to last weekend's incidents, the number of students sent to the hospital this semester from over-drinking was "in the double digits," according to Drug and Alcohol Resource Team advisor Kate Ward-Gaus. Ward-Gaus, a health educator, stressed that the number of students sent to HUP this fall for alcohol-related illnesses is not significantly different from last year. Binge drinking and alcohol-related violence gained University-wide attention earlier this fall after police responded to four bloody alcohol-related assaults in one night. At the time, University President Judith Rodin and other administrators called for a broad dialogue on binge drinking and related issues. Yesterday, Assistant Vice Provost for University Life Barbara Cassel said the University has been busy searching for solutions to student over-drinking. "The Alcohol Task Force has since met and with the vice provost developed a series of interventions involving programming and other activities," she said. Students from the task force and other University committees are "looking at untried areas of policy enforcement" as part of the continuing effort to deal with a problem that is affecting virtually every college in the United States, Cassel said. "It's going to take a concerted, ongoing effort, and the effort has to be multifaceted," she explained. "We have to involve students in any strategies to solve the problem." Meanwhile, Ward-Gaus' DART program is studying Penn students' drinking habits in the hope of developing better alcohol education programs. The group recently mailed surveys to students living on- and off-campus and has extended its deadline for responses to December 1 because of a mail problem affecting off-campus students. Ward-Gaus said the survey results should provide valuable insight into drug and alcohol use within many University demographic groups -- such as athletes and fraternity and sorority members -- and the campus as a whole. The findings are expected as early as February. "We can look at this and say what percentage of our students put themselves at risk for going to the hospital," Ward-Gaus said.

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