BY IAN YARETT

In print | October 5, 2006

During the early morning hours of Saturday, Sept. 30, three student debaters who were at Swarthmore for a debate tournament received citations from the Swarthmore Police for underage drinking and public drunkenness, according to police reports. The Peaslee Debate Society had hosted a party for debaters from Swarthmore and other colleges at Paces Friday night where alcohol was present.

Director of Public Safety Owen Redgrave said that Public Safety was notified of an intoxicated University of Maryland student in Wharton dormitory at 1:11 a.m. The responding officer called for an ambulance. Minutes later, Public Safety responded to another inebriated UMD student who was outside Clothier Hall and also required medical assistance. Swarthmore Police responded to the calls for paramedics.

According to the police report, both students were 18 years old and were intoxicated to the point where they could not stand or walk without assistance. One of the students was taken to the hospital, but the other declined to be hospitalized and was instead taken into custody by the police, who “lodged [him] at Media headquarters until he was sober.”

A third student, from Princeton University, was discovered in an intoxicated state several hours later during one of Public Safety’s routine rounds of the campus, according to Redgrave. Public Safety responded by calling for an ambulance.

According to the police report, this student was found at 6:42 a.m., passed out in the hallway on the top floor of Pearson Hall. The student had clearly vomited on his pants and was unaware of his location once awoken. He told the responding police officer that he was 18 years old, before being taken to the hospital for treatment.

This student as well as the two others from UMD each recieved two citations, for underage drinking and public drunkenness.

Garth Sheldon-Coulson ‘07, a member of the debate team, said that all three cited students were able to compete in Saturday’s tournament. “The students who went to the hospital were fine health-wise and the student who was detained in Media by the police was released early Saturday morning,” he said.

Peaslee Debate Society President Chris Ford ’07 said that a major contributor to the problem was that some of the debaters from other schools had started drinking their own alcohol as early as Friday afternoon.

According to both Ford and Sheldon-Coulson, the debate party was not much different than any other Paces party. “There were PAs and the party was run like any other party,” Ford said. “The only difference was that a bunch of people were from other schools, so we had the PAs check a list of people allowed to enter the party.”

Associate Dean for Student Life Myrt Westphal said she was disturbed by the alcohol abuse that had occurred over the weekend. “It is troublesome, especially because it was also Discovery Weekend and we had prospective students on campus,” she said.

Westphal also mentioned that for insurance reasons, Worth Health Center will only treat enrolled Swarthmore students. Therefore, students from other schools, including Bryn Mawr and Haverford students, must call an ambulance if they are in need of medical assistance while on Swarthmore’s campus.

Ford said that the debate team is in the process of determining what measures need to be taken to prevent further incidents like these in the future. “We have already spoken with the deans,” Ford said. “We will be in contact with the debate teams [of the students] and are taking steps to ensure that something like this will not happen again.”

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