University President Lawrence Bacow is taking an active role in reshaping the campus drinking culture in an effort to combat the dangerous student mentality that he believes has led to incidents of widespread alcohol abuse, such as last spring's mass casualty incident.
This semester, Bacow has been meeting with students who have been taken to the hospital by Tufts Emergency Medical Services (TEMS) and discussing each student's situation.
"I've been periodically meeting this year with students who get transported for alcohol, asking them to come in to talk to me about circumstances that put them passed out at the base of the Alumni Steps at 3 a.m. on a Sunday morning," Bacow told the Daily.
He added that he felt it was his duty to try to counteract the mentality that leads to this type of behavior.
"There is a dangerous drinking culture at Tufts, and we're working to combat it," Bacow said. "If we didn't, we would not be doing our job."
Technical Services Manager for Public Safety Geoffrey Bartlett applauds Bacow's involvement and hopes that it will lead to a positive change in the drinking culture on campus.
"The fact that President Bacow is personally meeting with students should signal that he cares deeply about this issue," Bartlett said. "Tufts is dealing with a serious challenge that faces many campuses."
In his discussions with students who have required help from TEMS, Bacow asks each student to make two commitments about changing his or her behavior and Tufts' drinking culture.
"I look them in the eye and … the last thing I say to them is that I want you to make me two promises," Bacow said. "The first promise is you're not going to put yourself in this situation again."
Everyone readily accepts the first promise, Bacow said.
The second commitment, however, is more difficult but essential to changing the drinking culture at Tufts, he added. Bacow makes each student promise to speak up in situations involving dangerous drinking and to try to prevent other incidents from occurring.
"I say ... I want you to be a better friend to your friends than they were to you," Bacow said. "You would never let a friend get in a car drunk with their keys; you take their keys away from them, and you would stop them from doing that. So why do you let a friend drink to excess to such a degree that they're putting their life at risk?"
Interacting with students who have survived dangerous drinking situations, like alcohol poisoning, has reinforced Bacow's belief that the drinking culture needs to change.
According to Bacow, students set the expectations for drinking on campus. He believe that the drinking culture will change only if students create new social norms for drinking.
"We are capable of creating expectations, but most of those come from within, and I think students have to be a big part of the solution," Bacow said.
In response to the idea of having more mandatory alcohol education, Bacow said that increased programming would not change drinking on campus without a change in the collective mentality of students.
"The notion that we can just do a better job of teaching about alcohol education during orientation and the problem will go away is, I think, ridiculous," Bacow said. "We will continue to try and do it, and we should teach as we do, but giving people a two-hour talk at the beginning of their freshman year isn't going to solve the problem."
The problem will only be solved, Bacow reiterated, when students intervene in potentially dangerous situations and prevent friends from drinking in excess.
According to an anonymous freshman who was taken to the hospital by TEMS this semester, the drinking problem relates to people not understanding their alcohol limits, something that cannot be easily taught.
"I think [the problem is] that people don't know how to handle their alcohol, and things get out of control," she said.
The student did not get the opportunity to meet with Bacow, but instead met with Judicial Affairs Officer Veronica Carter and Director of Health Education Ian Wong.
Bacow cited an incident in which a student died of alcohol poisoning during his tenure at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as pivotal in shaping his stance on alcohol.
"I had the experience during my tenure at MIT of having a student die from alcohol poisoning," Bacow said. "I remember meeting with his parents, I remember meeting with his friends who were drinking with him on the night that he consumed to excess, and it's not an experience I want to go through again."
Bartlett agreed with Bacow's views, adding that while students should continue to call TEMS in case of emergency, peer intervention is the most effective way to change the drinking culture on campus.
"Students need to take responsibility for adopting safe, healthy behaviors and call out their peers who behave in ways that are unsafe or unhealthy," Bartlett said. "I continue to strongly encourage students to call for help when someone needs medical attention, but it would be much better if peers intervened before EMS is needed. Tell your friends when they've had enough, and lead by example."
Last spring's mass casualty incident highlighted the problems with the campus drinking culture, Bacow said, and reflected poorly on Tufts.
"It wasn't just that it was a mass casualty incident — you had students who were throwing up on nurses, you had students who were being abusive to folks in the emergency room because they were so drunk they couldn't control themselves," Bacow said. "That doesn't give Tufts a particularly good name and doesn't speak well for Tufts students anywhere."
Ellen Kan and Michael Del Moro contributed reporting to this article.
