UPDATED: Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2018 at 4:14 p.m.

Early last month, Syracuse University’s Student Association started advocating for a change to the school’s policies related to the use of alcohol, drugs and tobacco. SA’s idea would protect students from disciplinary action to provide amnesty to students calling for immediate medical assistance.

In these instances, establishing SA’s Good Samaritan Policy idea could further discourage victim blaming and encourage more students to seek help.

Andrew Poole, staff liaison at Michigan State University, said that that school has had a medical amnesty policy since a statewide law was passed in 2012.

“We have found that the number of emergency runs, especially around celebratory events, has gone up, but we’ve also seen the student recognition of the medical amnesty policy go up. So we think that’s due to students not being afraid to call EMS or other emergency services,” Poole said.

The Prevention, Education, and Intervention section of SU’s Alcohol, Other Drugs, and Tobacco Policies states that students are encouraged to seek help in cases of intoxication and alcohol poisoning. It also states that students will not be subject to disciplinary action when seeking help from certain services including the Counseling Center and its Options Program.

Some may argue that this policy could encourage students to drink alcohol more frequently. But, regardless of this, by working with SA on this idea SU can further show that it values protecting its scholars.

Discussing SA’s Good Samaritan Policy idea would spark more communication between the university and its students about student safety and alcohol and drug use.

CORRECTION: This post has been updated to better reflect the nature of the Student Association idea of possibly proposing a Good Samaritan Policy at Syracuse University and how it is focused on medical amnesty. The Daily Orange regrets this error.

Lauren Spiezia is a freshman newspaper and online journalism major. Her column appears biweekly. She can be reached at lespiezi@syr.edu.

Published on January 22, 2019 at 9:02 pm