Laura Tripp didn’t know much about alcohol before she came to the University in the fall of 2008.

“I’ve never really been a drinker,” Tripp, a junior from Overland Park, said.

But a few months into Tripp’s sophomore year she saw the dangers of excessive drinking firsthand. While at a house party she realized her friend had had too much to drink. Tripp had seen him drunk before, but this time it was different.

“He was being really belligerent and started throwing up everywhere,” Tripp said. “His personality was completely different. He was really angry.”

Tripp said she wasn’t sure if her friend was in trouble but was scared nonetheless. Tripp drove him to Lawrence Memorial Hospital where he was treated. She said her friend’s blood alcohol level was about 0.23, nearly four times the legal limit.

Tripp isn’t alone in her experience with dangerous alcohol consumption. According to hospital data, LMH has seen an increase during the past three years in emergency room visits because of alcohol related incidents, especially among college-age people.

In 2009, LMH saw a total of 1,734 emergency room cases as a result of alcohol, and 401 of those cases were for people ages 18 to 24. Since 2007, there has been a 27 percent increase in alcohol-related visits to LMH among college students. In 2008, the hospital saw a total of 354 college-age people.

John Drees, LMH community and education specialist, said the substantial increase in emergency room visits indicated an abuse problem at the University and in the Lawrence community.

Multiple factors contribute to alcohol abuse, Drees said, including advertising, cultural acceptance, and economic conditions. According to the Kansas Department of revenue, Douglas County is fourth in Kansas alcohol sales behind Shawnee, Sedgwick and Johnson counties. In Douglas County, more than $200,000 is spent on alcohol daily, adding up to more than $1 million per week, Drees said.

“When you start to look at it that way, that’s a real economic issue,” he said.

According to the American College Health Association’s survey conducted at the University in spring 2009, 51 percent of students reported using alcohol within the past nine days. At the time of the survey, 31 percent reported they had consumed five or more drinks in one sitting in the past two weeks.

Marlesa Roney, vice provost for student success, said similar surveys indicated an increase in alcohol consumption and abuse at the University.

“Given the clear evidence, alcohol abuse is a problem for a significant number of students at KU, just as it is at most other colleges and universities, as well as U.S. society in general,” she said.

In response to an increased level of alcohol abuse, the University implemented new policies in May 2009, including parental notification and a mandatory online AlcoholEdu course for freshmen and transfer students under the age of 22.

The parental notification policy allows student housing to notify parents or guardians if a student has violated an alcohol policy for the second time or a drug policy for the first time. The goal of the new policy is to encourage communication between parents and students about alcohol and help students make better decisions, Roney said. The AlcoholEdu course was designed to provide students with detailed information about the effects of alcohol.

Jennifer Wamelink, associate director for residence life, said it was still too early to determine the influence of the University’s new policies and programs. Wamelink said she did not know how many letters of parental notifications were issued and would not have that information for months. But she said there were some encouraging signs that the new policies were working.

“We feel we have seen fewer students transported to the hospital due to alcohol in the fall semester,” she said.

Tripp said she was glad the University was taking measures to decrease excessive alcohol consumption and abuse, but said she was not sure how successful the programs would be.

“I think it’s good what they’re trying to do with the AlcoholEdu, but I feel like people are just going to try to get them done as quickly as they can and not pay much attention,” she said. “But it’s better than doing nothing.”

Although doctors had said her friend probably would have been OK, Tripp doesn’t regret the emergency room visit.

“We decided that in the future we wouldn’t want to regret taking him in, if something really bad did happen,” Tripp said.

— Edited by Megan Heacock