As Ivies looms on the horizon, the tally of alcohol-related hospital transports takes on renewed importance in the minds of some.
There were no alcohol transports between Dean of Students Affairs Tim Foster's meeting with first year students about alcohol on February 12 and Spring Break. Since then, there have been two.
One student was taken to the hospital each of the past two weekends for reasons relating to over-consumption of alcohol, bringing the total for the academic year to 22.
Community Policing Officer Terry Goan said he felt little has changed over the past several months.
"There's still the same if not more," Goan said. "There appears to be no [fewer] intoxicated students."
Foster, however, saw things differently.
"I guess it depends on how you define progress," Foster said. "People are registering events and parties on campus. That's a positive thing. There was a period of time when people weren't. The party registration system is what allows us to really focus on health and safety."
Foster added that there had been an increase in dialogue on the subject that he said he saw as valuable.
Director of Safety and Security Randy Nichols was concerned Bowdoin was receiving more negative attention than it necessarily deserved.
"Bowdoin is still the envy of the NESCAC when it comes to alcohol safety," Nichols said. "Bowdoin is a success story and I don't want that to get lost in the shuffle."
"Too many people are working too hard on this," Nichols added. "Brunswick Police Department (BPD) plays a role too, they deserve some of the credit for the safety here at Bowdoin."
There have been numerous encounters over the past few weeks between Bowdoin students and Brunswick police with regard to alcohol. The first-year female that was transported to the hospital two weekends ago received a court summons for underage possession via consumption, as did as two of her friends, according to Nichols.
Another underage female received a court summons for the same charge the following night, Nichols said. She was with several of-age friends who had open containers, though they did not receive citations for public consumption of alcohol.
Goan said that incident was extremely avoidable.
"We would have driven right by them and not even thought twice if he didn't see the bottle," Goan said. "They kind of brought attention to themselves."
Last weekend another first-year female was transported from the fourth floor of Coleman Hall to the hospital. Nichols said the student had consumed alcohol in a number of locations, one of which was a registered event at MacMillan House.
James Carney '11 was the alcohol host at the registered event. Carney wrote in an e-mail to the Orient that Brunswick Police Officer Rob Lane had not given him a court summons, but was turning the matter over to the District Attorney (DA). According to Carney, Lane said that both he and the event host could receive court summonses from the DA.
According to Nichols, an of-age student was issued a summons at Hannaford on Friday night for furnishing alcohol to minors and another student received a summons for underage possession simply by his proximity to the alcohol. Nichols immediately sent a campus-wide e-mail about the incident.
In another incident last Saturday night, BPD investigated an off-campus party on Pleasant Street. The officers saw students outside the house with open containers and then encountered an underage student. However, the police turned the matter over to Bowdoin Security.
"The students at Pleasant Street are very fortunate," Nichols said. "There was an opportunity that night for a number of students to be cited, clearly. There were 14 Bowdoin students there who were underage."
Nichols stressed again that most of these situations can be easily avoided with common sense.
"It's a big house on a busy street," Nichols said. "So what brought the police into 36 Pleasant that night? One of the partygoers went to the side of the street with a cup that contained alcohol."
Nichols confirmed that he believed there had been an rise in court summonses this year.
Foster noted, however, that in the past two weeks there has not been a noticeable increase from the rest of the year.
"I think there is a perception on the part of students that Brunswick police is being more aggressive in terms of issuing citations to students," Foster said. "The data that I have is that a very small number of students are finding themselves on the receiving end of citations and summonses. Brunswick police is using tremendous discretion in terms of when to issue those."