Will Oxy Discipline Students For Alcohol-Bruised Weekend?

An investigation is underway into the circumstances that led seven Occidental College students to be hospitalized Sunday after a bout of excessive drinking—and if they violated any college policy they could face disciplinary action.

However, the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act does not permit the public disclosure of any details about the disciplinary process, Occidental College Director of Communications Jim Tranquada told Eagle Rock Patch Monday.

“Clearly there are cases where the disciplinary process does allow for suspension and expulsion,” Tranquada said, adding that “the [students’] parents were notified in this case—and from the students point of view that’s a pretty serious matter.”

‘Not a Rave Party’

 Tranquada clarified two inaccuracies about the incident that have so far evidently gone unreported in the local media.

The first—of which Tranquada admitted he was himself unaware until Monday morning—is that the total number of Oxy students hospitalized was seven, not eight, as some networks reported. An eighth person was indeed hospitalized, but he or she was a guest of one of the seven students, Tranquada said.

The other inaccuracy reported in the media was that the students were attending a rave-like party.

“It was not a rave party,” Tranquada said, adding: “In most people’s mind ‘rave’ conjures up enormous commercial events where there are lots of drugs.”

The Saturday night event was in fact an annual “Splatter Dance”—with a “paint-theme”—held at Bell Field, where softball is played. “It was simply a dance with a DJ”—not a party—and several hundred students were in attendance, Tranquada explained.

Dance Well-Monitored

It was what the college spokesperson described as a “Type Zero event” in which alcohol was neither served nor allowed, said Tranquada, who had to get out of bed and rush to the campus when the students were taken ill shortly after midnight Saturday.

“There was a monitored entrance to the dance [and] if you were obviously intoxicated you were not allowed in,” said Tranquada, adding that personnel from the Department of Campus Safety as well as processional staff from the Office of Student Life staffed the entrance.

Oxy’s Alcohol Policy

Before Occidental College students arrive on campus, they are required to sign a form, testifying that they have read and understood a students’ handbook that covers campus life issues ranging from plagiarism to alcohol consumption, Tranquada said. Details of Oxy’s “alcohol policy” can be viewed on the college website or by clicking here.

Further, said the communications director, before freshmen arrive on campus, they are required to complete a college-run online alcohol education program similar to the widely used “Alcohol-Wise” program available on the Internet. Oxy also administers other alcohol-related programs for all students once they arrive on campus.

What Next?

Asked about the possible range of disciplinary actions against the seven students—not to mention their four peers who were also hospitalized after they had one too many at an October 8 campus toga party—Tranquada said it would be premature to say anything about the matter just yet.

“Certainly this last splatter dance will be looked at very closely,” he said, cautioning, however, that that such incidents cannot just be dealt with in a punitive manner.

“One could look at this as a teachable moment,” he said. “The end is not to punish people but to educate them about whatever issue has landed them in a disciplinary process.”