While many schools offer medical amnesty clauses to protect students from official disciplinary consequences as a result of alcohol poisoning, students may still face punishment from an alternate source.
Though Penn does not usually notify parents when a student seeks medical attention for excessive drinking, many other universities do opt to contact guardians.
Duke University is one of several schools that notifies parents after a student experiences an alcohol emergency that requires medical attention.
"We actually have the student notify the parent him- or herself and have the parent make a follow-up phone call to us," Duke Interim Associate Dean for Judicial Affairs Stephen Bryan said.
Stanford University Alcohol and Drug Prevention Manager Ralph Castro said that at his university parents are called if the student is a freshman.
"We see the freshman year as a kind of a transitional year into the college experience, and we think that parents are a vital part of that transition," he said.
Though a law was passed in 1999 allowing schools to notify parents of such incidences, University Director of Alcohol Policy Initiatives Stephanie Ives said that Penn "has taken a very moderate approach."
"I can't think of a single case [in which we notified a parent] because of an ER transport," she said, adding that "some schools notify parents the moment a student pops open a beer."
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