All-freshman dorms had nearly twice as many alcohol-intoxication related calls to Tufts Emergency Medical Services (TEMS), according to TEMS statistics from last year.
The average number of alcohol-related TEMS calls in the all-freshman Houston and Tilton halls in the 2003-2004 school year was 3.46 per 100 students. The average number of calls for all the other dorms was 1.81 per 100 students.
When asked for comment, Director of the Office of Residential Life and Learning (ORLL) Yolanda King was unable to return several e-mails from the Daily.
Former residents of both freshman and mixed dorms were not surprised by the statistics. "It got to a point where you weren't surprised by the sight of ambulances at 1 a.m.," former Houston resident Suzanne Horwitz said. "This year I'm in a no-freshman house and I have yet to see TEMS outside," she said.
Sophomore and former Houston resident Brendan Shea agreed. Ambulances came "every single weekend, especially during orientation," Shea said.
TEMS statistics show that there were eight alcohol-related calls to Houston Hall and six to Tilton Hall during the 2003-2004 academic year.
Sophomore and former Houston Resident Mike Stone blamed the number of calls on the all-freshman atmosphere. Houston was "a usual rally point for most uphill freshmen at the beginning of the year," he said.
TEMS Director of Operations Jordan Kanter said that there are statistics on the number of calls per dorm for the 2004-2005 school year, but that they are "not statistically significant. Because there are so few per dorm, one call can increase the number of calls by 33 percent," Kanter said.
Statistics also show that the total amount of alcohol-related TEMS calls for all dorms was almost 1.75 times higher in 2003-2004 than in the previous two school years.
In the 2003-2004 academic year, there was an average of 2.15 calls per 100 students. In 2002-2003, there was an average of 1.14 calls, and in 2001-2002, the average was 1.26 calls.
The rise in TEMS calls coincides with a change in disciplinary policy at the beginning of the 2003-2004 school year, when Tufts administrators decreed that students who called TEMS for an alcohol-related emergency would not be placed on Probation Level I for their first violation.
First-time offenders would still be written up in a report filed with the ORLL.
At the time, Dean of Judicial Affairs Veronica Carter told the Daily that the administration had "heard a lot of positive feedback about the change for the first offense, and more people are calling TEMS because of the non-disciplinary response."
Horwitz also said "the residential staff called TEMS even when it wasn't medically necessary."
