By Inara Tareque
tarequei@grinnell.edu
Three students were hospitalized last Saturday as a result of excessive alcohol consumption.
This rough start to the semester has alarmed the administration. Many have been wondering whether there is any particular reason for so many hospitalizations in a single night.
“I cannot provide you with the specifics,” said Travis Greene, Dean of Student Affairs. “However, we are still trying to figure out whether last week was anomalous or not. We are alarmed—how did self governance breakdown? Why did he/she/ze choose to do so?”
All of the hospitalizations occurred at the 2000s themed Harris party. However, according to Greene, the particular location or theme of the party was not the issue.
“People were involved in various pre-parties,” Greene said. “Harris was not the issue. It was more of the pre-gaming with friends. Moreover, 2000’s Harris should not be associated with this. It just seems like any other normal Harris.”
However, hospitalizations have been a longstanding concern at Grinnell, and the College is taking measures to combat it.
“We are definitely going to discuss this incident in the Harm Reduction Committee,” Greene said.
However, the number of hospitalizations may not be a sign that students are drinking more.
“We want to be careful when we use hospitalizations as a measure,” said Jen Jacobsen ’95, Wellness Coordinator. “Certainly they measure instances in which self-gov failed to intervene until the last possible moment, but they are also better than people just trying to tuck those folks into their beds and ‘keep an eye on them’ in order to keep our hospitalization numbers low. So we are unsure of what hospitalizations measure: is it an uptick of people being dangerously drunk or an uptick in their friends making the right decision and calling for help? We want to be sure we are not discouraging the latter.”
