Parents will now be notified if their underage student at UW-Madison is involved in extremely serious alcohol or drug incidents due to a policy Chancellor John Wiley announced Wednesday.
\We respect the independence of our students and aim to treat them as adults during their stay here on campus,"" Wiley said. ""However, university staff members sometimes deal with alcohol and drug overdoses that are, literally matters of life and death.""
The parental involvement policy formalizes the existing policy in the Offices of the Dean of Students and University Housing.
""There have been times in the past where we actually involved parents on a situation, but we didn't have anything formally written down on how to do it and what the process was,"" interim Dean of Students Lori Berquam said.
Now the Dean of Students Office or the University Housing Office will contact parents with a phone call or letter if their underage student is taken to detoxification for an overdose on drugs or alcohol, has attempted suicide, or has put themselves or others at serious risk.
Prior to the phone call home, UW-Madison staff will meet with the student and encourage them to inform their parents first.
If the student cites extenuating circumstances at home, such as abuse, then the parents may not be informed.
Student input was gathered before UW-Madison came to a decision on the policy. Associated Students of Madison Chair Eric Varney and Vice Chair Dylan Rath said they received e-mails from Berquam asking for their feedback.
However, Resident Housing Advisory Board member and UW-Madison junior Micaela Frudden said no one asked for feedback from her student group.
""We never even talked about it last year,"" she said. ""I had no clue about it at all.""
Berquam said the new policy is necessary for the protection of students and academic success.
""The number one reason students leave here is because of their involvement with alcohol,"" Berquam said. ""We're the number one party school,"" she said, ""and that's a problem.""
She added the number of students taken to detoxification has been on the rise the past three years.
She said that as of Sept. 18, 14 students had been taken to detox since the beginning of the year.
According to Berquam, of the 14 students, 13 of them had blood alcohol levels ranging from 0.15 to 0.32, far above the legal limit.
""It is our hope that parents will influence their student differently than our staff and help reduce the number of these incidents in the future,"" Wiley said.
