AMNESTY, EDUCATION, SUCCESS?
Both Travia and Barreira emphasized the absence of data directly indicating that Harvard undergraduates were drinking in greater quantities.
“We really shouldn’t jump to the conclusion,” Travia said. “We do conduct a lot of research and we’ve got a lot of data, and we have nothing that suggests that people are drinking more dangerously.”
The efficacy of the College’s alcohol amnesty policy and education programs may account for at least part of the increase in students seeking help at Stillman, according to Travia and Barreira.
Harvard’s three-year-old amnesty policy states that any student who seeks help from UHS for alcohol-related illness will not face disciplinary action for providing or consuming alcohol, and any student who brings a friend to Stillman to be treated will also not face disciplinary consequences.
The advertisement of the amnesty policy may have made dangerously intoxicated students more willing to be brought to UHS and similarly made onlookers more comfortable with the task, according to Barreira.
Both Travia and Barreira said that programs like the Drug and Alcohol Peer Advisors program may have increased awareness of the symptoms of alcohol poisoning and of the steps that one can take when a friend is critically intoxicated.
DOWN LIKE THE ECONOMY?
In the case that the rise in Stillman admissions can be attributed to students drinking larger quantities of alcohol, one potential explanation may be the stresses created by the nation’s dismal fiscal climate.
“Even though there is a deep recession and a significant amount of unemployment, people are drinking more,” Barreira said. “The alcohol business is booming, especially the cheaper liquors.”
“I don’t know why the college campuses would be immune to that effect,” he added.
Many Harvard undergraduates would feel the stressors of the economy, said Barreira, citing concerns such as parents’ ability to afford their children’s tuition and seniors’ employment prospects upon graduation.
Still, Barreira and Travia said that they have not yet found the key to understanding what has caused the increase in alcohol-related illness admissions to Stillman.
“We’re going to continue to gather our research and data, and continue to do what we do, encouraging students to make healthy choices,” Travia said.
—Staff writer Sofia E. Groopman can be reached at segroopm@fas.harvard.edu.