This article is the first in a two-part series looking at the alcohol policies of Boston-area schools. The second article, to appear in tomorrow's issue, will focus on Tufts' administrators response to medical amnesty and additional policies offered by nearby institutions.
As Tufts' new alcohol policy completes its second month in effect, students on the Alcohol Task Force, the body charged with evaluating the regulations on campus, are increasingly finding that medical amnesty, a policy enforced by many surrounding Boston-area colleges, may prove more beneficial to students than administrators initially thought.
In an interview with the Daily in September, Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman called alcohol abuse on campus "out of control." Attempting to curb the problem, administrators eliminated the warning typically issued to first-time underage alcohol violators. First violations now trigger disciplinary probation level one (pro-one).
This revision amounts to a crackdown on student drinking, an attempt to check the problem by leveling harsher penalties on offenders to discourage dangerous behavior. But many other Boston-area schools practice a starkly different approach, electing to focus on preventing the likelihood of alcohol overdose rather than aiming to control drinking altogether.
At Harvard University, a so-called "medical amnesty" policy has beesn in practice since 2003 and was formally added to the student handbook in 2007, according to Director of Alcohol and Other Drug Services Ryan Travia.
Medical amnesty attempts to encourage students to seek medical assistance when they are overly intoxicated by protecting them from resulting disciplinary consequences. In the past decade, this method has enjoyed a newfound popularity among colleges as an approach to student drinking and safety.
At the Boston Intercollegiate Leadership Council Summit on Oct. 17, which brought to Tufts student government representatives from several area schools, alcohol policy was a major theme.
"All the other schools at the summit said they either have medical amnesty, or they're talking about implementing it," said Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senator Bruce Ratain, a junior, who also serves on Tufts' Alcohol Task Force.
A medical amnesty, or "Good Samaritan," policy is currently in place at a number of Boston-area schools in addition to Harvard, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Northeastern University and Boston University.
Medical amnesty is "a harm-reduction approach. It's not designed to reduce the frequency of underage drinking," Daniel Trujillo, associate dean of the Office of Community Development and Substance Abuse Programs at MIT, told the Daily.
The word "amnesty" can falsely connote a sense of immunity from consequences for drinking. This is not the case, Trujillo said. Students who require medical transport because of alcohol must still undergo a screening and self-assessment process, as well as a one-on-one meeting with him.
Call for help or not, the penalties for a second infraction at MIT are stricter, but the policy seems to have proven effective.
"We don't get many second offenses," Trujillo said.
The primary focus for proponents of medical amnesty is student safety — focusing on limiting the health consequences of alcohol abuse.
"We don't want to suffer an alcohol-related death because someone is afraid of getting in trouble," Travia said.
Several student leaders are spearheading an effort to institute a similar policy at Tufts. Ratain, who chairs the Senate's Administration and Policy Committee, said that he will advocate for medical amnesty.
"[I am] looking forward to working with administrators and the Alcohol Task Force to see whether [amnesty] could be a viable option," Ratain said.
TCU President Brandon Rattiner, a senior, also supported the move.
"One of the worst things that you can do is not provide a safety net," Rattiner said. "It's foolish to pretend that students are not going to be drunk … the best thing that we can do is be there for them."
Reitman told the Daily in an e-mail that Tufts had a general amnesty policy in place for several years, but dangerous underage drinking became more prevalent under the regulations.
Still, he said, he was willing to consider "the merits of any approach" to find a way to curb health-threatening intoxication on campus, "especially those that have the buy in and involvement of large numbers of students on campus."
The Alcohol Task Force will make recommendations to a steering committee on alcohol at the end of the semester. Both Rattiner and Ratain said they hope to work with the Task Force to look at medical amnesty as a potential option for the campus.
