Amnesty policy showing results

The number of on-campus students who have called 911 for dangerously drunk friends has nearly doubled compared to last year, which officials said shows that a new amnesty protocol could be saving lives.

According to Resident Life officials, there have been 31 cases of emergency vehicles responding to calls made on behalf of students who were severely intoxicated between the first day of classes and Oct. 14 of this year. At least 17 of those calls were placed by students on behalf of themselves or a friend.

Throughout the same period of time of last year, there were a total of 18 such incidents, about 10 of which were reported by students, Resident Life officials said. Other key incident reports, like the number of alcohol citations issued by resident assistants, stayed more or less the same.

University officials attributed the increase in reported alcohol-related emergencies to the Responsible Action Policy — a recently implemented protocol three years in the making known among activists as the Good Samaritan policy.

"It's definitely not a matter of our staff cracking down on drinking," Resident Life Director Deb Grandner said. "Our whole approach, and one of the reasons I like the protocol, is that it places our staff in a position to encourage people to contact us and to make the call."

The protocol exempts students who seek medical help for a dangerously intoxicated friend from sanctions, like underage drinking citations. The protocol does however require each student's case be reviewed by Office of Student Conduct officials, who have the ability to ask students to undergo an alcohol education course.

At the beginning of the year, dorm personnel placed most emergency calls, Grandner said, but as September progressed, more and more students appeared to be taking advantage of the new partial-amnesty policy.

"I really think it's important that this becomes a part of the student culture, that calling for help is the right thing to do," Grandner said.

Information on the protocol has been distributed on fliers and posters throughout dorms, and RAs informed students of the new protocol at the first floor meetings of the year.

"We have worked very hard to make sure that our staff, as well as RAs, are very aware of the policy, and not only that, we've increased education about alcohol in general, such as what are the signs of alcohol poisoning," said Keira Martone, the manager for resident student conduct for rights and responsibilities in the resident life department.

After a year of monitoring the Responsible Action Policy's success, the University Senate — the university legislative body that directly advises university President Dan Mote on university policy — will review the results in May before determining if the policy should become permanent.

The university's official bylaws still read that students caught consuming or possessing alcohol on the campus could be put on housing probation, be sent to counseling, or have their parents notified if they are under the legal drinking age.

Kevin Tervala, the undergraduate chair of the senate's student affairs committee, said the jump in statistics is a clear indicator that the new protocol is already protecting students.

"Not a whole lot has changed on campus about the climate of alcohol except for the implementation of that protocol, and these numbers show that this sort of thing is needed at Maryland," said Tervala, who successfully labored last year to get the protocol passed by the senate — it was approved in an overwhelming 64-1 vote.

"A whole lot needs to be changed about it, but we need to look at it from the standpoint that it's a good first step," he said. "The next would be to make it permanent."

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