Boulder – The same phone calls that Greeks at the University of Colorado were urged to make as a matter of life and death have brought intense media attention, possible school discipline and police citations.
Now officials worry that students won’t call 911 when their friends drink too much.
“My biggest concern at the moment is not the kids drinking under age,” said Marc Stine, a spokesman and advocate for fraternities. “That’s a bigger problem than I can solve this week. … My concern is that all of this may discourage people from doing what we have obviously taught them to do in the last week.”
Nine underage women went to the hospital for alcohol poisoning early Saturday morning after students called 911 for help or drove them to get medical attention. The actions came one week after Greek leaders and advisers pleaded with members not to hesitate to call authorities in light of Lynn “Gordie” Bailey’s death last year. Bailey was a fraternity pledge who died of alcohol poisoning.
With Bailey’s death in mind, many are encouraged that so many women were rushed to the hospital.
Linda Havlik, whose daughter was among the Delta Gamma women who alerted authorities, said she is proud of the response.
“Everyone is so upset about ambulances going there,” she said of the sorority house. “Would you prefer the coroner?”
And Delta Gamma’s president, Erin Butner, has written Bailey’s stepfather to thank him for his lessons and boast about her sorority sisters’ concern.
“It seems that all the media is focused on … is the fact that these girls drank too much,” Butner wrote. “As I see it, the focus is the positive actions taken by the Greeks to save a sister’s life.”
Butner said Wednesday that the spike in hospitalizations for alcohol poisoning was a direct result of the training the week before.
“If I didn’t go to that leadership forum,” she said, “if I hadn’t been reminded of Gordie’s death and the way that it happened, I probably would have looked at the girl and said, ‘Maybe she just needs to lie down.”‘
CU officials see the conundrum, but they have to balance whatever progress the 911 calls represent against amount of alcohol that was illegally consumed.
“That is the dilemma between encouraging students to seek medical attention versus holding people accountable,” CU spokeswoman Pauline Hale said.
CU does have a good Samaritan policy that will likely play a role in any disciplinary action. For instance, if the university only found out about drinking from a call made to 911, that would factor into a student’s punishment, vice chancellor for student affairs Ron Stump said.
He said punishment could range anywhere from “a conversation we have with a student to suspension.
“We still have to be concerned about the amount of alcohol that was consumed and provided,” Stump said.
Ryan Lynch, internal vice president of the Interfraternity Council, said fraternities are doing what they can to stop excessive drinking. Leaders voted Monday to prohibit parties in fraternity houses for the near future. But he said they will have to re-double efforts to make people safe.
“We have been stressing putting safety of the individual above any potential outcomes, as far as discipline goes,” he said. “Right now, because of all this, the concern is that people will hesitate.”
Staff writer George Merritt can be reached at 720-929-0893 or gmerritt@denverpost.com.
