A Coleman Hall resident was transported to Parkview Adventist Medical Center for alcohol poisoning last Friday, prompting a mandatory meeting for all first year students on Saturday evening.
The Office of Residential Life has since requested that proctors continue discussing thses issues with their first-year floors and extend their on-duty hours.
All first year students were sent an e-mail Saturday morning announcing the class meeting, but provided no details as to the purpose of the gathering.
News of Friday's alcohol transport spread quickly, however, and many students were able to guess the topic.
Henry Brockway '13 said it was "pretty obvious [the meeting] was going to be about alcohol transports and hard alcohol."
The College has seen an unusually high number of alcohol transports this year. The student taken to Parkview on Friday was the 20th transport of the 2009-10 school year and the 10th first year to be hospitalized for alcohol-related sickness.
According to Dean of Student Affairs Tim Foster, who called the meeting, Friday night's incident was a sign "that we needed to directly flag the concern with members of the first year class."
"There has been a great deal of conversation and coverage about alcohol misuse but even after all this conversation, a student still consumed to the point that he needed to be transported," said Foster.
Foster asked John Scannell '10, a member of Bowdoin Men Against Sexual Violence (BMASV) and the men's ice hockey team, to speak at the meeting.
Foster said that he "wanted students to hear the perspective and advice of a senior student leader who knows Bowdoin."
Scannell said that, as a student, he understood that many students spend "Thursday, Friday, Saturday with [their] friends trying to get as hammered as possible." On nights like these, "you have to watch out for one another," he said.
"By all means have fun," Scannell said, "but don't let it get too far."
Foster was less forgiving in his speech than Scannell.
"Class meetings are unusual things," he told the class. "In my 14 years here, this is the first time we've done this."
Foster did little to hide his disappointment with members of the Class of 2013.
"We have had students with Blood Alcohol Contents of 0.19 to 0.33...It makes me ask 'is anybody home?'"
"We talk about you being the best and brightest but this is not what the admissions office expected when they brought you here," Foster added.
Foster told first years that the worst part of his job is having to make phone calls to parents at "2:30 in the morning" to let them know their child has been hospitalized and to tell them that he is "not sure how it is going to end up."
Foster offered two solutions to the current problems of alcohol misuse. The first was "personal responsibility," or "students making healthy and smart choices" for themselves. His other suggestion was that "students tak[e] responsibility for the broader community, for...friends and peers."
Foster emphasized the importance of not being shy when it comes to intervening in potentially dangerous situations.
"When friends or classmates are making choices that are dangerous or destructive, you need to step in even if you run the risk of pissing someone off," Foster said.
"[Ten] transports are 10 too many and the other 485 members need to intervene when friends or classmates are acting irresponsibly or making dangerous choices," he said.
In an e-mail sent to members of the Residential Life staff on Sunday afternoon, Director of Residential Life Mary Pat McMahon encouraged proctors to follow up with their first year floors about Foster's alcohol discussion. She said she wanted the meetings to encourage first-year students to prevent their peers from making "dangerous decisions."
Further, Ben Farrell announced at Wednesday night's Residential Life meeting that proctors and RAs on duty in first year dorms on Friday and Saturday nights will now report at 9 p.m. rather than 10 p.m.
While staff members used to be on duty from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m., Farrell said the time from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. is very active in first year dorms, particularly if students are pre-gaming for campus parties.
He said that Residential Life staff were not being asked to change their duties or responsibility, but just to make sure everything in the dorm is under control.
First years' reactions to the meeting were mixed.
Mike, a first-year student who declined to give his last name, thought Foster's speech was effective.
"It was upsetting," he said. "It makes me not want to drink to excess."
First year Daniel Ertis felt similarly.
"It was stern but needed to be. If anyone was not aware of the situation, they are now," he said.
Lyne Lucien '13 was one of many first years critical of the meeting.
"I don't think it is going to be effective. People walked out laughing at it," she said. "The general feeling that I got was that it was not that serious and that they are trying to ruin our social lives."
Lucien didn't think the solutions Foster offered would work.
"You can try so hard to stop someone from drinking but they are going to fight to keep drinking...They will get belligerent," she said.
Henry Brockway '13 said that he thought the "problem lies more in the drinking culture of the school" and not in the lack of students watching out for each other.
"Telling us that we messed up is not going to do anything," he said.
According to Brockway, "people just went out and partied like they normally would after the talk," despite the Foster's warnings.
A first year student who was transported to Parkview this year for alcohol poisoning questioned the blame placed on his peers.
"Everything Tim Foster said was deserved. But I don't think it is fair to blame the people around me because it was not their decision to drink so much. It was my decision," he said.
The student said he thought the talk was going to be ineffective.
Students are "drinking so much to feel something. It is ingrained in the culture" of the College, he said.
Despite the mixed responses, Scannell said he has high hopes for the Class of 2013 and views the increase in alcohol transports as an opportunity to change.
"We can all learn from the 20 kids who have been transported," he said.
-Will Jacob contributed to this report.