Alcohol Enforcement Patrols Resume
Goal: reduce acute intoxication, hospitalizations
With freshmen comprising the lion’s share of students brought to the hospital for acute intoxication at the beginning of each school year, BU resumes its annual fall enforcement protocols this Labor Day weekend, September 3 to 7. The enforcement will run each weekend through November 21.
The Boston University Police Department and local police inaugurated additional autumn patrols of party-heavy precincts and began breaking up loud gatherings and publishing weekly enforcement statistics on BU Today four years ago. The strategy, which has won plaudits from residents near campus, is modeled on one from the University of California, which reduced off-campus drunkenness without driving it further underground.
Last fall saw an uptick in students hospitalized for acute intoxication compared with the previous fall. The BUPD attributed the rise to Halloween’s falling on a weekend, a traditional time of increased drinking, and to more students receiving bystander training to help inebriated peers. Overall, the number of alcohol-related hospital transports was 170 for the 2014–2015 academic year, up from 151 the year before.
Meanwhile, liquor law violations surged during the same 2014–2015 period. “Our numbers increased this past year because we adjusted our schedules to cover more active times in the evening when the violations are made,” says BUPD Captain Robert Molloy.
Enforcement has been coupled with education. Each summer, first-year students must take the online course AlcoholEdu for College, which dispels myths about campus drinking that might encourage alcohol abuse. President Robert A. Brown also sends out an annual summer letter to parents of incoming students, alerting them of the dangers posed by alcohol misuse, including trips to the emergency room, greater vulnerability to sexual assault, and plunging grades, a message he reemphasizes in his Matriculation speech.
This year’s letter from Brown outlined BU’s enforcement and education measures, inviting parents to help thwart alcohol abuse “by discussing potential risks and consequences with your son or daughter and the importance of personal responsibility” and informing them that “consequences for alcohol misuse can include substantial fines, mandated counseling, removal from housing, or suspension from the University.”
BU Today will publish each weekend’s enforcement stats on the following Thursday through mid-November.
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