The alcohol-induced death of University of Michigan sophomore Byong Soo Kim last week propelled the issue of college binge drinking into the national spotlight. The incident, like the tragic death of MIT student Scott Krueger in 1997, caused Tufts and other US universities to reconsider preventative measures on their own campuses to avoid a similar tragedy.
Kim, an engineering student, died last Monday morning after spending the weekend in a coma. He celebrated his 21st birthday with 20 shots of scotch whiskey in ten minutes last Friday night, but passed out before he could take the ceremonial 21st. Friends called an ambulance after they discovered that Kim wasn't breathing, and he was revived and taken to the hospital with a blood alcohol level approaching .39 percent.
In the wake of Kim's death, Tufts' Alcohol and Health Education Coordinator Armand Mickune-Santos said that the likelihood that an alcohol-related death could occur at Tufts is high. In the Krueger case, the close proximity of MIT and the $6 million settlement paid to his parents made Tufts administrators more conscious of liability issues. The heightened awareness is widely considered a primary cause for the diminution of Tufts' party scene. While Kim's death is not likely to have as significant of an effect, it still raises concerns.
"If there's one thing that I hope they can take away from this is that it can happen to them, that they're not invincible. I believe that's how people get in trouble. They don't believe that they can be a statistic, that it can happen to them," Mickune-Santos said.
According to Santos, about 60 Tufts students per year are taken to the hospital to be treated for binge drinking. About 17 percent of the phone calls that Tufts Emergency Medical Services receives are alcohol-related, said to Executive Director Brett Sylvia, and approximately half of those students are taken to the hospital.
Both the University of Michigan and Tufts have alcohol education programs in place, but Santos said that students fail to consider the risk of their actions when deciding whether to drink.
"I'd like to say that education and awareness will make a difference, but my guess is that those students who have died over the years have had education," he said. " I would think that everyone involved knows what happens to your body and your mind when you drink too much, yet people continue to die from drinking alcohol."
Santos heads several programs to make students more aware of the dangers of drinking, such as discussions in residence halls and counseling and assessment services. He recently began a program to train students as peer educators to advise students on alcohol use, and the group of eight students is working to create a marketing campaign about social norms on campus.
The administration also recently formed a social policy task force to discuss ways to provide students with additional social outlets. Ideas that have been raised thus far include increasing programming, extending the hours of campus venues such as Hotung Caf?© and Brown and Brew, and providing a shuttle bus from the Tufts campus to downtown Boston.
"I do think that if we do better the programming that's going on on campus and also give people more access to the city, it would give them more stuff to do that they're allowed to do," said Tufts Community Union Senator Raji Iyer, who has been working with the administration on the issue of social policy.
Santos said that despite education efforts, students continue to binge drink because they receive mixed messages about alcohol. "The philosophy is that you work really hard, you need to celebrate, so lots of people abuse alcohol in that way," he said.
"I think as a result of the alcohol abuse, there certainly is all the other health issues we have on campus regarding sexual assault, violence, vandalism... the majority of those incidents are alcohol related," he said.
Students say that while incidents such as Kim's death may cause administrators to worry, they do not feel vulnerable to the problems of drinking. "It's a small percentage of people that it happens to, and therefore I think it can't happen to me," said freshman Jonathan Parker.
Freshman Julie Jackson said that it is difficult to resist drinking at parties when everyone else is drinking, and that students rarely consider the risks.
"A lot of people think they're immune to it. For some people, [Kim's death] might open their eyes and they'll stop for a weekend, but people aren't going to stop drinking because of one incident," she said.
