Thirteen go to hospital post-Bicker

The number of alcohol-related Public Safety transportations was higher than it has been in past years for the weekend of bicker-club pickups and initiations, Davall added.

Interclub Council adviser Tim Prugar ’06 said he had been notified by the University of a “somewhat high number of transports” Friday evening. Prugar declined to specify which University official contacted him.

“Obviously, this is of grave concern to the clubs, especially because of all the safety measures they have put in place,” he said. For safety purposes, all clubs now conduct their pickups during the day and are accompanied by a Public Safety escort and, sometimes, a dean’s office escort as well, Prugar said.

In 2001, 11 University students were taken to McCosh over pickups and initiations weekend, and 10 students required alcohol-related transports over the corresponding weekend in 2002, Public Safety officials said.

Neither Davall nor Prugar provided recent statistics, though both said the numbers were lower in the past few years.

“The clubs are going to be working very closely with the dean’s office to figure out exactly what went wrong this year, especially in light of the fact that the last few years have been so good and so safe,” Prugar said.

Davall said that while some of the transports this year were directly from Prospect Avenue, many were from University Health Services (UHS) at McCosh to UMCP.

UHS nurse Mary Miller refused to comment on the number of students treated at McCosh this weekend.

“[The students transported to UMCP] were more serious than UHS could handle,” Davall said, adding in an e-mail that “most of the time [when students are transferred from UHS to UMCP] it’s because their blood alcohol level is too high to keep them at UHS.”

Davall said that he was unaware of any students under the age of 21 being charged for underage drinking this weekend.

Prugar said he did not believe that the spike in alcohol-related transports this year was indicative of declining club safety.

“The clubs over the course of the last four or five years have really made great strides in making everything safer,” he said. “I look forward to the clubs and the University working together to see how they can continue to do so.”