Students are suffering the consequences of a weekend of drinking that ended in five students being rushed to St. Mary's Hospital by ambulance for alcohol-related illnesses.
Four of the hospitalized students participated in one or both of two drinking games called "Around the World" at the University Forest Apartments, a university police officer said. The games reportedly were put on by two club sports teams at the apartments Saturday night. The game involved students going from apartment to apartment, drinking a liquor-based mixed drink at each apartment. One female student was sent to the hospital Friday night.
All of the hospitalized students were underage. Two of the students who were sent to the hospital on Saturday were females and two were males.
"I'm defintitely learning from this experience and moving forward," said a member of one of the teams who wished to remain anonymous. "I've never heard of a situation like this ever and we want to make sure it never happens again."
The students who were sent to the hospital were referred to the dean for underaged drinking and face a $50 fine, an online alcohol education class and a disciplinary warning. The sanctions vary depending on how many offenses the student has committed and the extent of the offense, Angie Harris, associate dean of residence life, said.
The students who live in one of the apartments where a game took place have met with the dean and have to pay a fine, do community service and are banned from having a party for the remainder of the academic year, the anonymous source said.
Another male student also had an alcohol-related illness but was not sent to the hospital. University police could not confirm if he had been a part of the drinking games.
Dan Fabian, chemical health coordinator for the university, will see the students who were sent to the hospital and try to figure out what led to their illnesses and what they can do to prevent it from happening in the future, he said. The students will take three six-hour classes lead by substance abuse counselors from an outside organization, Fabian said.
Fabian also runs the URAware program and is attempting to create a new curriculum and textbook for the program. Steve Bisese, vice president for student development, put together a committee of faculty, staff and students last year to look at alcohol education on campus. The committee recommended the URAware program and classes be changed to reflect college students' drinking experience. Now Fabian is attempting to get approval and funding to make the changes.
The current curriculum focuses more on alcoholism, instead of issues college students face when it comes to alcohol, Fabian said.
"Some of the stuff is dated. It's not as relevant to college students as we'd like it to be."
Contact staff writer Stephanie Rice at stephanie.rice@richmond.edu
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