INC NEWS - Letter: Moneta's comments about 'next death' inappropriate (Chronicle, Feb 2003)

[Melissa Rooney]

Thanks for sharing this Feb Duke Chronicle article,
John. Especially as someone who was involved in the
Greek sorority/fraternity system, I was part of the
party system that resulted in at least 2 alcohol
deaths while I was in college-- an intoxicated
sophomore frat boy was hit by a train, and another
student died on the beach, his friends having thought
he was 'just passed out.'  The sorority girls weren't
safe either, despite their policies against using
sorority funds for the purchase of alcohol...I can
remember many parties with Frats where some girl at
the party spent the wee hours of the following morning
in the hospital, having her stomach pumped.

The system is broken when we turn our eyes away from
these events and chalk it up to 'the college
experience.'

--Melissa

Melissa Rooney
Fairfield Neighborhood


--- John Schelp <bwatu at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Letter: Moneta's comments about 'next death'
> inappropriate
> (Duke Chronicle, 4 February 2003)
> 
> Try to imagine my dismay when I read the comment by
> Larry Moneta in the Jan. 17 edition of The
> Chronicle.
> To quote, "the only thing that will drastically
> change
> the debate on alcohol at the University will be 'the
> next death' he said." Wasn't my son's death enough?
> 
> Raheem was a junior majoring in engineering and
> economics when he contracted aspiration pneumonia
> three days after a night of heavy drinking in
> November
> 1999. As his bereaved mother I am one of the
> countless
> victims of an alcohol-caused tragedy. I am also the
> program director of a national nonprofit
> organization
> concerned with student safety. There is so much more
> that can, should and eventually will be done to
> combat
> the dangerous level of alcohol consumption currently
> the "norm" among the majority of students at Duke
> and
> on college campuses nationwide.
> 
> The latest Harvard University study of college
> drinking has shown environment to be the strongest
> contributing factor for excessive drinking. Building
> a
> "village" is good - but changing the culture of
> excessive drinking on campus is going to take more
> effort and innovation. As long as everyone thinks of
> alcohol as a harmless beverage instead of a drug,
> abusive drinking will continue. 
> 
> This country's premiere online alcohol education
> course AlcoholEdu.com was designed by your own Duke
> faculty and alumni! Why isn't AlcoholEdu required of
> all incoming freshmen before they arrive on campus?
> Why are Duke students being denied an education
> about
> the most deadly drug in America, a drug that kills
> six
> times more people than all illegal drugs combined? 
> 
> May God help the parent of "the next death" who has
> to
> suffer as I have. 
> 
> Catherine Bath 
> Pennsylvania
> 
> 
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