A Town Hall Meeting addressing underage alcohol consumption among college students will be held Wednesday, April 14, at the Lion’s Pause, Buntrock Commons, St. Olaf College.  The meeting is sponsored by St. Olaf, Carleton, The MTFYADU and the Healthy Community Initiative. Details here.

St. Olaf Dean of Students,  Greg Kneser, wrote this article for the Manitou Messenger challenging Oles to examine their relationship to alcohol.   Another article in the Messenger examined how St. Olaf students have been renting establishments licensed by the City of Northfield such as the NF Ballroom,  The Grand and Eagles.  Underage  students are admitted to these parties where alcohol is served.  This may be contributing to problems such as multiple admissions to  Northfield Hospital’s ER  for alcohol toxicity.

St. Olaf’s Public Safety Newsletter reports an episode with four admissions to Northfield’s ER during one night last February.

Of course, problems with alcohol consumption are not unique to St. Olaf.  This piece from the “Security Blotter” in the Carletonian illustrates the problem there.

Recently Gustavus Adolphus college has experienced a controversy involving their tradition of “Case Day”.

The University of Wisconsin at Stout has initiated measures to deal with alcohol abuse issues.  Stout has had six alcohol related deaths in the last two years.  Some Stout students are resisting these efforts, as detailed here.

Other recent fatalities occurred at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, where an intoxicated student fell to his death;  and an inebriated University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse student drown.

Other links:  NPR’s “This American Life” aired this last December:  “#1 Party School“.   The documentary “Haze” can be viewed here.