To the Editor,
In response to the Sept. 11 article, “Hopkins targets student drinking“ about University efforts to reduce and more effectively respond to student binge drinking, particularly in off-campus venues, I would like to applaud this initiative. My husband and I are Hopkins graduate school alumni. We live in a building very close to campus that also has many Hopkins student renters, some of whom are prone to throwing loud and drunken parties. Aside from the annoyance this is to other residents, we have witnessed some disturbing occurrences in which student safety was very much at risk.
One time an inebriated young man climbed down the exterior balconies from two stories above us onto our terrace at 3 a.m. He was trying to climb back up when we woke up. Either coming or going, he could have fallen and been badly injured. Another time we had left our front door unlocked and woke up at 4 a.m. to find in our living room an incoherent young woman, unable to tell us who she was or where she was trying to go. She passed out on our couch while we called University security and were told that they were unable to help us because we were in an off-campus building. They could not come and attend to this young woman’s safety, even if we invited them in. The Baltimore City police did respond and take charge of her, but I really don’t understand why someone from the University was unable to come and help make sure the situation turned out okay.
Consumption of excessive amounts of alcohol seems to be the norm with Hopkins partiers these days, at least from our perspective. How this culture developed I don’t know, but I very much hope the University will find a way to change it before students start experiencing lethal consequences.
Claudia DeSantis M.A., Writing Seminars, ‘91
