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Oct. 21, 2005

Detox at Madison

When the Princeton Review in August named the University of Wisconsin at Madison as its top “party school” for the year, Wisconsin officials objected and boasted about their progress in curbing excessive drinking.

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This week, Wisconsin officials are telling a different story — not only reiterating that they make more alcohol-related arrests than just about anyone else (a function in large part of Madison’s large enrollment), but also that more Madison students require emergency detox treatment than at other universities (a ranking university officials said isn’t scientific, but based on comparisons with other large universities).

The reason Madison officials are sharing the detox stats is that they are way up this fall. At a news conference Wednesday, officials said that 30 students have required emergency detox so far this academic year, compared to 17 last year. The comparison is more striking because the university has had only four home football games so far this year (compared to five at this time last year), and home football games correlate with excessive drinking incidents.

To further drive home the point, Madison released summaries of the conditions of students who required detox, with details such as:

  • “Found lying on the ground unaware of location date, date or time. Urinated on self.”
  • “Unaware of location, unable to stand w/o assistance. Claimed her father was NYPD /w/ mafia ties. Removed handcuffs and seatbelt in squad on way to detox.”
  • “Found passed out in room, vomited, in and out of consciousness....”

John Lucas, a spokesman for Madison, said that university officials were worried about the levels of “extreme intoxication” and felt that they needed to try something more to get the attention of students. “We’ve done just about everything we can think of as a university,” he said, “but there’s not always a lot of buy-in by either students or the city.”

Lucas said that, given the number of students requiring detox treatment, Madison has been “incredibly lucky” not to have had any student deaths related to alcohol this year. He added that these figures only cover campus police actions, and exclude actions by local police, who took an unknown number of additional students to detox.

Madison’s publicity of its detox numbers is striking in part because the university has been holding itself up as a leader in changing campus culture on alcohol. In addition to the statements after the Princeton Review designation, the university has won numerous large grants from foundations and others to carry out various programs and also taken steps to involve parents more when their children have drinking problems.

Reactions to the announcement has been mixed. Samantha Zieser, campus relations chair of the Associated Students of Madison, said that she thinks enforcement of alcohol rules is up, but that actual drinking is about the same. Zieser, who is 20, said that alcohol is easy to obtain for underage students like herself, but that most students aren’t at risk of their health or lives.

“I don’t think extreme drinking is as widespread as it may seem by those figures,” she said. “Students don’t always know their tolerance level, and they just overindulge.”

Still, Zieser said she thought it was good for Madison to release the information. “It will deter students from overindulging to the point of detox.”

But Michael P. Haines, director of the National Social Norms Resource Center, said that what Madison did just shows that “scare tactics don’t work.” He said that Madison has been focused on trying to shake up students, rather than using the “social norms” approach in which students are told that most students drink in moderation.

He called the approach of releasing data on detox “health terrorism” and said it can have the opposite of the intended effect. “There’s never been any research to show that this has a positive impact.”

Haines said that university officials are of course correct to take seriously the question of how many students need detox, and to analyze whether those numbers are on the rise. But he said that publicizing this information may just result in more people being sent to detox when they don’t need it, and scaring those who work in dormitories into calling in authorities when that may not be necessary.

“Sometimes a person who has passed out and urinated on himself may only need cleaning up,” Haines said.

— Scott Jaschik

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Comments

Detox

I guess it’s alright to let loose once in a while especially in a party. Getting drunk is a common sight and sending them straight to detox for overindulging is a bit harsh.

Detox Your Body, at 9:10 pm EST on February 29, 2008

You should post a link to the “drugs and debauchery” piece by nomad scholar in the “related stories” frame. One of the big reasons that students binge so much is that we have glamorized alcohol with 21-year minimum drinking age laws and students don’t get a chance to drink with people they are trying to impress while they’re young. Rather, they only get to drink in age-segregated illegal frat parties etc. where there is no moderating influence.

jmg, at 12:02 pm EDT on October 21, 2005

it is a witch-hunt

This school isn’t really trying to help people. As Haines says, they are trying to shake up some students. Indeed, at many schools, low-level administrators get a sick pleasure in sending kids to the hospital, notifying their parents, and generally making life miserable for them when they see them drinking and maybe getting a little tipsy. (I know once instance where there was a contest going on to see how many students could be punished based on “referrals” one year.)

The beauty of it is, that if you are “pals” with one of these administrators nobody will ever say that you need help. You can drink and vomit all you want, because you will be protected from harassment from people that are trying to “help.” (Of course, this “help” can ruin a student’s life.)

If I was a parent there I would make sure my kid moved off campus because the school is on a witch hunt.

Larry, at 4:27 am EDT on October 22, 2005

sad but true

Larry, your assertions about UW are completely erroneous. You obviously have never been to UW. It’s certainly not a ‘witch hunt’ by the administration, in fact, the admin has done little, till the media started to pay attention. Having recently graduated from UW, I have seen the extreme drinking at UW, and its not just at house or frat parites, but students with fake id’s at the numerous bars in town, that offer drink specials. The whole social culture at UW is about drinking (which reflects the drinking culture in the state as well). For football games the drinking starts at 9am tailgating and throughout the game as students sneak in alcohol and then the post-tailgating and the partying later that night. I’m not suprised that UW is 1# party school. Maybe now the school will wake up and really do something instead being half-assed about it.

UW student, at 4:40 am EDT on October 24, 2005

UW, How do you know it isn’t a witch-hunt? In my experience, schools choose to be party schools by recruiting and retaining the kind of bozo that uses fake Ids and drinks. They make it very clear that students can stay for four years without doing that much work. Then, they act surprised when kids use their free time to drink. Somewhere alone the line, it was determined that targeting random kids that don’t have the social skills to become favorites of the administration is the way to fix this drinking problem.

Larry, at 7:20 am EDT on October 24, 2005

Have you been to Wisconsin?

You’re telling me ‘how you know it is not a witch hunt’—how do you know that it IS one, Larry? You don’t either. But I was a student at UW. I took classes, paid tuition, lived with the rules, ate the bad food, survived the cold, drank the beer and got a degree there. What’s your relationship to the school? So I think I can speak more to the issue than you can.

Wisconsin is the second largest public university in the country (after our big ten rival OSU) with 45,000 students. I don’t think the school is thinking about recruiting ‘bozos’ who get fake id’s. The overwhelming majority of the students come from within the state, if you have the grades, as a resident you get in. The school gets its budget from the state legislature. Bar and drinking culture is HUGE in the entire state. So who’s going to hold the school responsible if the state legislature isn’t concerned about the issue? Check out the tailgaters at Badger games, the adults are just as messed up drunk, if not more so than the students. The Tavern lobby is very strong in WI. There was huge resistance by local businesses when the school tried to pressure the local establishments from promoting drink specials that would encourage binge drinking.

UW student, at 4:47 pm EDT on October 24, 2005

maybe we are not so far apart after all.

UW, In my experience any effort to “curb” binge drinking via education is selectively enforced by a few low-level administrators and tin-god hall-monitor types. If you get in good with these folks, you can do whatever you want unmolested. If not, you will be deemed to have an alcohol problem and letters will be sent to your professors, parents, and everyone else. (Granted, these events happened at another school, but I see it as a pattern of human behavior.)

The rest of your post is much more interesting. I like the fact that you admit that “bar culture” is big in Wisconsin. Indeed, you are probably one of the few people to admit this. But, then I have to ask: if drinking and getting drunk are acceptable in that culture, why does anyone mind the fact that kids are getting drunk. If they have a little too much to drink, according to the norms in that culture, it is all a part of growing up. So, there binge drinking isn’t a problem: it is a fact of life. Punishing or “curing” a few people, however, open the door to selective enforcement.

UW claims that it wants top-quality students. I guess we all know that they really don’t mean that and will pretty much admit anyone and let them party and not work. Life is funny like that.

Larry, at 6:59 pm EDT on October 24, 2005

I still don’t think you get it

Larry,

I never said students were stupid at UW or that they don’t study and all they do is drink. Actually most UW students are pretty damn driven and work hard. The thing is that they also party HARD as well. And not ALL students do this either. But it is the dominant culture at UW and in the state generally to drink A LOT when you drink. And the adminstration is NOT signaling out ‘certain’ students for punishment. The school is far too big to have administrators who ‘know’ certain students and let them have special favors. Maybe that works at a small elitist college, but that’s not UW’s style. The only group of students who get special attention are the athletes. But that shouldn’t be suprising at a Division I school with huge basketball/football programs that bring in the $$ to the school.

UW student, at 11:48 am EDT on October 25, 2005

what sort of attention is paid to athletes ?

UW, I must admit that I find your culture alien. In my culture “partying” is considered immoral and I can’t see how a school would wish to support such an immoral activity. But, to each his own. If the University of Wisconsin wants to party hard, I guess that is their right, especially as it “is the dominant culture at UW and in the state generally to drink A LOT when you drink.”

Low-level administrators know certain students. Indeed, someone running a dorm is probably acutely aware of who they like and dislike, and who will be “punished” having extra attention paid to their “drinking problem.”

Anyway, it has been fun. I never knew that athletes deserved special attention in other cultures, since they rarely contribute to scholarly journals.

Larry, at 2:52 pm EDT on October 25, 2005

detox

While the sites like pass drug test detox are in the internet any ways of fighting with drugs in schools is useless because it is quite difficult of founding out that children use drugs. They are not afraid of getting cought

detox, debt consolidation online, at 10:35 am EST on March 20, 2006

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