The University of Texas Dean of Students Office is now investigating two separate incidents of alcohol poisoning involving two students.
At 3 a.m. Wednesday, just hours before the first day of classes were to begin at the University of Texas, a student living at the Hardin House, a private dormitory for women in West Campus, called campus police after discovering her roommate unconscious and foaming at the mouth in the shower. The young woman, who had been part of a pledging event for a sorority, was treated for alcohol poisoning.
Then at 3:43 a.m., another student alerted campus police after finding her roommate passed out in the bathroom of their Almetris Duren Hall dormitory room on the U.T. campus. The second young woman had also been involved in pledging a sorority when she was treated for alcohol poisoning.
“When freshmen get here, they kind of go a little crazy and you often times find people passed out or stumbling drunk,” said Michelle White, a U.T. senior.
Since 2009, incoming U.T. freshmen and transfer students have been required to take an Alcohol and Drug Awareness program before beginning classes.
“We have thousands of first year students, many of which have never had experiences with alcohol. They have a little dead time on their hands. They're here to experiment,” said Kevin Prince, the director of U.T.’s Alcohol and Drug Awareness program.
Prince says cases of alcohol poisoning like the ones from Wednesday morning are the exceptions not the rule at U.T.
U.T. students surveyed by the Student Health Center perceived that 98-percent of their peers drank alcohol. Prince says in actuality, it’s 70-percent and he says the majority of those youngsters have four drinks at a time or fewer.
“What that tells me is that yes, students are drinking but they’re doing it responsibly. They’re avoiding for the most part most of the hazards, the negative consequences that happens as a result of drinking,” added Prince.
As of Wednesday night, U.T. Police could not provide KVUE with the conditions of the two young women treated for alcohol poisoning.
