When an 18-year-old college freshman at the University of
Colorado at Boulder died of alcohol poisoning after a fraternity
party in 2004, a fellow student, Anthony Rossi, founded the Student
Emergency Medical Services, a program that aims to provide
emergency medical care at student events such as parties and sports
competitions.
Now, Rossi is trying to bring the SEMS program to Southern
California. He has contacted UCLA as well as USC, which has already
decided to take Rossi up on his offer.
At this point, only the University of Colorado and Colorado
State University have operational SEMS programs, but Rossi has
contacted other schools.
SEMS is a peer-to-peer program in which certified student
Emergency Medical Technicians, under supervision of a medical
director, attend campus parties and events to provide emergency
medical assistance.
These student EMTs are not responsible for regulating alcohol
consumption at parties, but attend parties and watch for and treat
individuals showing signs of having consumed too much alcohol,
Rossi said.
“They don’t police. They endorse college culture
with responsibilities,” Rossi said.
SEMS at UCLA would be student-operated and be paid for by
campus-based student fees, with an estimated initial cost of $6,000
to $10,000 and yearly operational costs of $30,000, Rossi said.
If the program moves forward at UCLA, Rossi estimates it could
be fully operational within a year.
Rossi, now the president of the nonprofit SEMS Foundation, sent
out e-mails to UCLA staff last week hoping to bring SEMS to
campus.
UCLA staff members met the program with skepticism.
The program’s value at UCLA is not as high as it is at the
University of Colorado, said Pam Viele, director of Student Health
Education at the UCLA Arthur Ashe Student Health and Wellness
Center.
She said one reason is that the cultures at UCLA and the
University of Colorado are very different.
“What works at one university doesn’t always work at
another,” she said.
The SEMS program comes with an education component that is
intended to train students, especially fraternity and sorority
members, to recognize and treat alcohol-related problems, Rossi
said.
But the UCLA Chapter of Greeks Advocating the Mature Management
of Alcohol also questioned whether UCLA needs the SEMS Program.
“SEMS is unnecessary and redundant here at UCLA,”
GAMMA chairwoman Vanessa Roman said.
She said she does not believe UCLA needs the SEMS program
because the campus already has alcohol education programs and
safeguards at Greek events, such as trained security and social
chairs who regulate parties.
UCLA also has a reputation of relatively safe and moderate
consumption of alcohol.
“Incidents involving emergency medical attention are few
and far between at UCLA Greek parties, and have always been well
identified by those patrolling the party,” Roman said.
Roman said the money spent on SEMS could be better used to fund
current programs, such as GAMMA’s SAFERIDE program, which is
a van service providing safe transportation to and from Greek
parties.
According to the 2002 Ashe Center Student Survey, UCLA has
consistently ranked below the national average in prevalence of
heavy drinking.
Only 21.9 percent of UCLA students report heavy drinking, while
nationally, 44.4 percent of students drink heavily.
The prevalence of heavy drinking at UCLA in 2002 was down from
35 percent in 1995.
Though fraternities and sororities have a higher rate of alcohol
use and heavy drinking, UCLA students generally show a very low
rate of negative consequences due to drinking, such as getting hurt
or blacking out, when compared to the national average, according
to the survey.
But UCLA Interfraternity Council President Matt Olsson said even
though UCLA has most alcohol issues under control, the SEMS Program
could be another step in the right direction.
Olsson affirmed the effectiveness of UCLA and IFC’s
current programs of alcohol management, but said IFC would support
SEMS as “another way to get the message across.”
The SEMS Foundation would provide the educational and logistical
material necessary for establishing the program, but UCLA students
would take over from there, Rossi said.
SEMS would need the permission of UCLA Greek Life to operate on
campus, and would likely be operated by UCLA Greek students such as
Interfraternity Council members, Rossi said.
American Medical Student Association External President
Elisabeth Berger called the program a good idea, but expressed
concern over exactly how SEMS would train its student EMTs.
Berger also said it was likely that AMSA members would be
interested in volunteering for the program if it’s created at
UCLA.
The SEMS Program proposal comes in the wake of another alcohol
awareness program, AlcoholEdu, which was recently adopted at UCLA
as the university’s first mandatory alcohol-education
program.