HUPD Reports Rise in Alcohol Incidents at Game

In the aftermath of the Harvard-Yale tailgates, alcohol poisoning sent six students to University Health Services (UHS) and four to area hospitals—nearly resulting in the death of one undergraduate, according to the official Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) report released yesterday.

“There seems to have been more emergency service activity than there was two years ago,” said HUPD Chief Francis D. “Bud” Riley, who presented the report to the Committee on House Life yesterday morning.

According to Riley, one of the four acutely intoxicated students transported by ambulance that day nearly died when the thick mud on the intramural fields trapped an ambulance, a tow truck and a police cruiser that were all sent in to rescue the convulsing student.

The student, afflicted by severe alcohol poisoning, was carried from the field on a backboard by HUPD officers and immediately taken to the hospital.

“They got him to the hospital just in time... He was an extremely lucky young man,” Riley said.

At least six students were brought to UHS that day with “potentially life-threatening” cases of alcohol poisoning, according to David S. Rosenthal ’57, director of University Health Services (UHS).

The 2000 Harvard-Yale Game saw four cases of “life-threatening” alcohol poisoning, which was partially responsible for the implementation of the keg ban at this year’s Game, wrote Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis ’68 in a Nov. 4 op-ed for The Crimson.

Dire Consequences

The problems stemming from the Game’s tailgates had less to do with the keg ban than with irresponsible distribution of alcohol during the student tailgates, administrators said.

Had the unnamed student died, the implications would have been severe, according to Lewis.

“To say there was irresponsible hosting at Soldiers Field would be an understatement; had the individual died, the students who served him would be up on manslaughter charges today,” wrote Lewis in an e-mail.

However, some who hosted tailgates feel that they did the best they could to safeguard party-goers.

“The nature of the tailgates makes [them] impossible to monitor... The students who threw the tailgate all made a goodwill effort to monitor drinking,” said Lionel Rivera ’04, who organized the Pforzheimer House tailgate.

Lewis wrote that the administration is planning to prevent the transport of large quantities of alcohol to the next Yale Game Harvard hosts and that it will be thinking about how to restrict distribution to underage or “plainly intoxicated” individuals.

Not for Want of Kegs

Riley believes that students, and not the lack or presence of kegs, are to blame for the incidents.

“The students got sick because they chose to drink too much. If their motivation was to show the administration that they could get disgustingly drunk whether there was a keg ban or not, some of them obviously succeeded,” Riley said.

Lewis concurred, emphasizing that students would have gotten drunk regardless of the rules imposed on the tailgates.

“I said in my [op-ed] that students wanting to get drunk...would be able to do so with or without kegs,” Lewis wrote.

Angela Salvucci ’03, a member of the Committee on House Life and organizer of the Kirkland House tailgate, suggested that disorganization the morning of the Game could have contributed to the problems that day.

“The House tailgates were supposed to be organized near the dining services tailgate...but because parking attendants didn’t know where we were supposed to be, the tailgates ended up scattered over Cumnock field,” Salvucci said.

At the Committee’s meeting this morning dealing with the near-tragedies of the tailgates, several ideas were floated to regulate the tailgates two years hence. Having House Masters and tutors serve as monitors, making non-alcoholic beverages available and requiring groups to acquire permits to hold parties were all suggestions made, according to Salvucci.

Regardless of specific changes, Salvucci said it was clear to those at yesterday’s meeting that changes would be needed in the future.

“Chief Riley’s words were really moving. He told some stories about very sick people. I would suggest they relate the stories to students, because I know they gave me pause,” she said.