Mary P. Daniels '02, whose name has been changed at her request, has little medical training, but last spring, she had to determine if a friend of hers was going to live through the night.

Taken to her room by friends after overdosing on alcohol, Daniels' friend threw up, drifted in and out of consciousness, and even went into convulsions.

Daniels and her friends chose not to seek their proctor's advice out of concern that the incident would be reported, skeptical of the College's promise that a student is not disciplined when seeking medical attention for an alcohol-related illness.

It was three a.m., and Daniels weighed her desire to keep her drunken friend out of trouble against the very real risk that he might not live through the night.

"There was a crowd of people there," she says, "a lot of people wanted to take him to [University Health Services], but we didn't want to get him in trouble."

Daniels and her friends chose not to bring their acquaintance to UHS, and he ended up fine the next day.

The College has long upheld a zero-tolerance policy on alcohol consumption--no drinking under the age of 21; no irresponsible drinking ever.

Still, even with such a hard-line stance on Harvard's part, students and former proctors say the system is lined with cracks that could lead to a tragedy much like that which occurred at MIT in September 1997 when first-year Scott Krueger died after overdosing on alcohol at a fraternity party.