Discussion: Medical Amnesty now at UD

MrsJax09

Well the students are back, which means I will be BUSY soon with noise violations, underage consumption tickets, and all kinds of arrests. Freshman....ahh my bread and butter. LOL But something is new this year at UD that I found interesting. UD has adopted a "medical amnesty" program so if a student is seeking medical attention for alcohol at student health OR assisting a student  to get to student health for medical attention (good civilian idea), they can apply over at Judicial Affairs for this amnesty within a week to avoid a strike.I think it is a good move on the University's part because too often students are so afraid of getting expelled or suspended from school that they think they can just monitor their friend and help them "sleep it off", which has lead to some serious tragedies on campus in the past. My mom, as a nurse for UD, says they are really happy about the change hoping it will help many students, but they are afraid of just being a drunk tank too. As a response they are going to be watching this semester closely to see if they will need to hire more night staff to handle the influx. What do you think. Is this a policy change for the better? Do you think it will just continue to encourage binge drinking to the point where alcohol poisoning is a threat and they know they have an out?

Ms.BriarRose

I think it's a good idea.  The years that I have been there, there have been several deaths because of the fact that roomies or others were afraid to either call for a ride or call 911 because they would get in trouble.  Hopefully, this will now enable those who were doing the right thing to begin with to keep doing it, and show more students that you can do the right thing and not get in trouble.On a more personal note, I think the Judicial System at UD is the biggest joke in the world, and they take the most hardball and ridiculous approach to several circumstances that cause you to scratch your head and go "Whaaa?".  They need to change how they do things over there, and the entire system needs to be revamped.  But that's a discussion for another day.

colleen3724

I definitely think it's for the better. There will always be ppl who abuse the privledge but it's better that than someone dying at a party (like last spring) b/c everyone's afraid of getting a strike. There are always going to be students who drink too much in college. I think it's more realistic for UD to help students be smarter & more responsible about themselves or a friend who overconsumes than trying to think it won't happen if there are enough penalties in place.

MrsJax09

I agree it is a move in the right direction. I read up on their website and I was also happy to see that it says to get the amnesty it does include meeting with a counselor (depending on level of intoxication) for abuse evaluation or alcohol education. So it is not 100% "free" but a class is not that big of a deterrent either, IMHO.