UW-Madison's new policy of contacting parents of students intoxicated in life-threatening drinking situations has already resulted in 22 phone calls home this semester.
According to UW-Madison Dean of Students Lori Berquam, all but one of these incidents involved students who had been sent to detoxification for binge drinking.
Housing officials informed incoming students of the new parental involvement policy at SOAR and when moving into UW Housing, said Berquam.
The Dean of Students office has placed seven or eight phone calls while the UW Housing Residence Life office has called parents of 14 students.
According to Berquam, \80 to 85 percent are freshman and the remaining are sophomores.""
After an incident takes place, parents are usually called while the student is present.
Berquam said the policy is going as expected. Parents have been thankful to be notified and have usually spoken to their child about the incident.
Partnering with parents is certainly part of the solution to minimize these kinds of incidents, Berquam said.
""It's not like we want to play big brother, it's about making sure a student can succeed here,"" Berquam said. ""If there's a way the parents can help us ... that's what we want to figure out.""
One student is now going to counseling as a result of the policy and other students are going to Values and Influences Toward Alcohol, an alcohol class offered through University Health Services, she said.
VITA is a class that started last year where students discuss the good, the bad and the ugly of alcohol.
UW-Madison sophomore Evan Swanson, who was sent to detoxification the weekend of Sept. 30, said the policy is probably a good idea.
""Sometimes it's just one night,"" Swanson said. ""It just kind of gets out of control-too much too fast.""
But when it is a situation where drinking has been a continuous problem for the student, their parents should be involved, Swanson said.
With football season underway, alcohol citations for underage drinking have been all the more significant.
According to Sue Langner, records manager of UW police, there were 202 citations for underage consumption from Sept. 1 to Oct. 5.
Of those citations, 168 were given on home-game football Saturdays.
In addition, Langner reported 23 people on campus have been sent to detoxification since the beginning of the semester, and 15 of these occurred on football Saturdays.
Although Berquam expects the numbers to rise over Halloween, she hopes students will realize their limits.
""You can have as much fun not quite getting to that point,"" she said.
