Between Easter and Houseparties, University students have another date marked on their calendars. Today, April 24, also known as Newman's Day, is an annual holiday observed by drinking a beer per hour for 24 hours.
Last year, McCosh Health Center bolstered its urgent care unit by hiring an additional nurse to handle the influx of intoxicated students needing care. This year, however, McCosh will not hire extra practitioners, said Daniel Silverman, the University's Chief Medical Officer.
"I don't think we're doing anything special," Silverman said. "Just our usual emergency services. We have our fingers crossed that it won't be a heavy need for care."
Silverman said he had to "beg ignorance" on the records of Newman's Days past. He will be celebrating Newman's Day for the first time, as he came to the University following his appointment in August.
Silverman dismisses as "apocryphal" the stories he has heard about students' drunkenness on the day that honors a quip attributed to Paul Newman, "24 hours in a day . . . 24 beers in a case. Coincidence? I think not."
Health services has not been involved in "any specific intervention" this year, Silverman said. But lining the Street is a series of posters outlining possible harmful effects of 24 beers in 24 hours.
Silverman said he believes the yearlong dialogue about high-risk drinking has encouraged students to be responsible and has been effective enough.
After attending Tuesday's Princeton Borough Council meeting, at which Council members tabled the proposed alcohol ordinance — legislation that would allow police to curb underage drinking by patrolling private residences — Silverman said he was impressed by how eloquently student leaders encouraged fellow students to take responsibility for their choices.
Silverman said McCosh is not involved in any of the disciplinary action that may arise because of students' involvement in Newman's Day, which the University considers a drinking game and justification for academic probation.
Today, McCosh will treat "students as we usually do," Silverman said, and will not handle any disciplinary matters because of medical confidentiality laws.
"We will counsel them if they need counseling and urge them to come back for a follow up if they need to."
The University administration takes student participation in Newman's Day "negatively" and University Public Safety and proctors will be on alert throughout the day, "enhancing the chances that offenders will be caught," Antoine Kahn, Master of Mathey College, said in an e-mail he circulated to Mathey College residents.
Residential College officials encouraged Residential Advisers and Minority Affairs Advisers to send out messages of warning to students as well, said Steven Lestition, dean of Mathey College.
The Newman's Day tradition is wrapped in Princeton lore, but as a fairly recent tradition, the event is foreign to some alumni.
John McPhee '53, the Ferris Professor of Journalism for the Council on the Humanities, said Princeton students did not play drinking games "nearly as much as they do now."
He remembers his peers putting their stomachs to the test by playing "Chug-a-lug," but McPhee said he never partook in the competition.
"If I wanted to drink, I drank the stuff," he said. "There's no need to have a game."
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