Drinking sends three from dance to hospital

By Corey Fawcett, Staff Writer -- fawcett13@up.edu

Saturday night, three University of Portland students were sent from the Dance of the Decades to the hospital for possible alcohol poisoning, according to the Department of Public Safety.

One student was sent to a detoxification facility.

Three students were sent back to campus from the dance at the Crystal Ballroom for being visibly intoxicated.

Five students were issued MIP (Minor in Possession) citations on campus.

The behavior of another student led Crystal Ballroom management to shut down the 21-and-over bar. At 10:45 p.m., the student reportedly grabbed a stack of ID wristbands that permitted of-age students to legally drink alcohol at the bar in the adjacent Terrace Room.  According to security staff at the Crystal Ballroom, he randomly distributed them to a crowd of students before bolting to the bathroom to hide. The bar was shut down for the night.

"There have always been issues with dances, but they increased a lot with this dance," Assistant Director for Student Clubs Jillian Smith said.

The overwhelming majority of these issues were alcohol-related. 

"We do our best but of course there's no way to monitor binge drinking," Campus Program Board Director Hillary White, a junior, said.

According to Director of Student Activities Jeromy Koffler, 10 to 15 intoxicated students caused problems urgent enough for Public Safety to intervene. Extra security was called in, and the staff endured verbal abuse from multiple dancegoers. 

"Is it worth it?" Koffler asked. "It's unfortunate that students felt they had to get drunk to enjoy the event. You don't have to be completely blitz drunk to have fun at the dance."

Not only did Public Safety have a busy night, but the Portland Police Bureau was called in  to provide extra security in case intoxicated students turned violent.

Also, for the first time in UP history, Portland police officers helped patrol campus for drunk driving and other dangerous behavior.

"They saw that all these kids were drunk at the dance, and thought, ‘Hey, these kids aren't going back to campus and doing their homework,'" Director of Public Safety Harold Burke-Sivers said.

Students who appeared to have been drinking were required to take a breathalyzer before getting on the bus to the dance, but many students were able to slip through the cracks by driving their own cars to the Crystal Ballroom.

"I just want our students to be safe," Burke-Sivers said. "I don't want to have to call up their parents and say that their kid's in the hospital, or that they've been involved in a drunk driving accident or that they got sexually assaulted because they had no idea who they were leaving with."

Burke-Sivers attributes the escalation of alcohol-related problems to the increasing popularity of hard alcohol.

"My guess is the drink of choice has changed," Burke-Sivers, who found empty bottles of vodka by the bus arrival and departure area on campus, said.

"You have to drink beer all day to get drunk from it, but hard alcohol hits you faster without having to drink much of it. A lot of students don't know how much alcohol is right for them," he said.

Burke-Sivers believes the best alternative is not to drink at all.

"I don't know why so many students think you need to get drunk to have a good time," he said.

"It looked to me like a lot of students were having too good of a time," sophomore Juliana Flores said.

One of the students who was sent to the hospital was found unresponsive on the floor of the Crystal Ballroom.

"I saw someone being taken away on a stretcher," sophomore Ka'iulani Moku Paiva said.

After every dance, Student Activities staff, ASUP and Public Safety meet to go over security-related issues at the event. The Dance of the Decades debriefing is scheduled for today.

"We're going to look at the event and reevaluate what it means to students," Koffler said. "The organizers have to think critically about what our mission is. Is the event doing what it's supposed to do?"

At this point, the future of the dance is hazy. There might not be a bar. Breathalyzer tests might become random and more frequent. If things go as they've gone at Gonzaga University (where a number of social events were recently canceled due to poor behavior), there may be no dance at all.

"We don't know if the venue will let us back. It's all very much up in the air," Koffler said.

 Although there will be discussion at the debriefing of what UP can do to decrease binge drinking-related behavior, many believe the issue is out of the school's hands.

"We've put a lot of stuff into place," Smith said. "We try to make it as safe as possible. But we can't be there, standing over students' shoulders. Culturally, it's up to the student body to be responsible."

"Students need to take responsibility for themselves," Burke-Sivers said. "We can't control student behavior. At this point, there's not much to do."

Dance of the Decades roundup:

3 taken to hospital

1 taken to detox by Police

3 sent back to campus

5 Minor in Possession citations issued on campus

Bar shut down after student stole ID bracelets