The Lessons Scott Krueger Taught Us

The loss last week of MIT first-year Scott Krueger was nothing short of tragic. For most college students left to reflect on his death, the incident has served as a sad reminder that activities considered to be a routine part of college life can be dangerous and even fatal.

Krueger's death has prompted a much-needed community discussion about the consumption of alcohol on college campuses-and rightly so, if irresponsible drinking still threatens to take the life of an unassuming 18-year-old. In the wake of Krueger's death, we are left to ask ourselves how such a thing could happen and, more importantly, how to prevent it from ever happening to anyone else.

Like it or not, drinking is a mainstay of college life. Ideally, alcohol would be consumed responsibly and in moderation and alcohol poisoning, aspiration or falling off roofs in a drunken stupor (all causes of the deaths of various college students over the past several years) would never occur. Although we are aware that we do not live in an ideal world, irresponsible drinking needs to stop and more efforts to heighten the awareness of rising first-years needs to start.

For the responsible drinker there is a large gap between having a good time and being in danger. The cause of preventing alcohol-related deaths could be greatly advanced by making sure that every first-year is schooled in the basic knowledge about alcohol consumption and over-consumption or abuse.

The benefits of such information extend beyond the individual to those with whom he or she happens to be drinking, as well. Krueger's reported sixteen drinks were not the only cause of his death. Just as much at fault was the person who carried him, unconscious, to the basement of the fraternity house, where he was found in his own vomit. Knowing warning signs of alcohol poisoning and how to position someone who is vomiting, as well as when a situation warrants calling a hospital, constitute crucial information for all responsible college students.

Almost without exception, past incidents of alcohol-related deaths have occurred at fraternity events. It is important to acknowledge that such environments seem especially conducive to fatal excess, as our own final clubs punch season commences.

At Harvard, an ideal occasion for the dissemination of this information is during the required visits by peer counseling groups to proctor groups. Proctors and tutors need to take a more responsible approach to the problem of heavy drinking instead of sending the message of "as long as I don't see it, it's all right." Leaving inexperienced first-years to figure out their own limits without guidance leaves them in the kind of ignorance that cost Scott Krueger his life. Proctors and tutors should either give a stern warning about the risks of drinking, in terms of both physical health and administrative punishment, or-and this might be the more effective approach-they should advise students on how to drink safely. Though this might be seen as running counter to the College's stance against underage drinking, it is better to appear contradictory than to remain powerless to curb this threat to students' lives. At the very least, Krueger's terrible death has snapped college students back into the grim realization that, while drinking is enjoyable and harmless most of the time, when someone drinks so much that he or she loses all self-control, that person is flirting with death. That fact should be drilled into all first-years' minds.