UHS Releases Study on Alcohol Use

Harvard students are still drinking too much and ending up in Stillman Infirmary—they’re just not getting as drunk as students in years past, according to Ryan M. Travia, director of the Office of Alcohol and Other Drug Services.

The total number of alcohol-related visits to Stillman has held steady in the last three years, with 141 in 2005, 133 in 2006, and 124 so far in 2007, according to a report released Tuesday by University Health Services (UHS).

But Travia said students are arriving at the infirmary with less dangerous blood-alcohol levels.

“We’ve had our share of high-risk cases,” he said. “But overall the trend has been, we’ve seen the same number of students but they’re presenting at lower blood-alcohol levels.”

The extent of the decline is still unclear. More complete data will not be available until next fall, Travia said.

The report also shows a steep decline in the number of athletes admitted to Stillman. Travia said that in most years, including 2006, athletes have accounted for about 40 percent of alcohol-related patients. But from October to February, the most recent month for which data is available, only 13 percent of patients were athletes. Travia said UHS will study the decline.

Travia attributed the lower levels to Harvard’s amnesty policy, which imposes no penalties on students who seek medical attention, as well as initiatives such as AlcoholEdu and the Freshman Residential EDucation (FRED) program that promote alcohol awareness. Students who might not have sought help in past years are seeking medical attention now, he said.

Freshmen accounted for 39 of the 90 visits to Stillman between September and February, according to the report—a trend that Travia attributed to their lack of experience with alcohol. He said 60 percent of incoming freshmen abstained from alcohol in high school.