Following a surge in trips to the emergency room and run-ins with police at last year’s Dillo Day, jitters about student safety have prompted administrators, police and student leaders to take new precautions on Saturday.
Three paramedic teams and two ambulances will be stationed on campus tomorrow beginning at 11 a.m. Last year only two paramedic teams and one ambulance oversaw festivities.
Residence halls and residential colleges will be serving food and bottles of water in the morning to keep students from “drinking and not having anything in their stomach,” said Joseph Vera, president of the Residence Hall Association.
Fliers and doorknob signs have been posted in dorms urging partyers to be safe. Similar ads have appeared in The Daily.
Meanwhile, residence halls have been mobilizing students to help clean up a 14-block swath of Evanston just west of campus Sunday, said Vera, a Music freshman.
“Residents within this 14-block area are the ones that see the most damage because of Dillo Day and thus complain to the university the most,” he said. “This cleanup effort is the first effort any Northwestern student group has made to ease tension between Northwestern and the city of Evanston because of Dillo Day.”
The three paramedic teams will be NU’s first defense for students who find themselves dangerously intoxicated, said Donald Misch, director of University Health Services.
“The immediate health concerns are going to be addressed by paramedics, and if need be — like last year — people will be taken right to the hospital,” Misch said.
The Interfraternity Council volunteered to sponsor one of the ambulances, which will be located alongside a paramedic team in the fraternity quads. Mayfest sponsored the other paramedic teams and ambulances, said Stephanie Rich, Mayfest co-chairwoman.
“I think there’s always a question on people’s minds as to whether their friends need to go to the hospital,” said Rich, a Medill junior. “If your friend gets hurt for some reason or if you’re not sure if they need to go to the hospital, instead of making the decision whether they, say, need to sleep it off, they can ask the paramedics.”
In addition, yellow-jacketed security officers who usually work athletic events will assist police by screening for alcohol near the Lakefill, said Assistant Chief Daniel McAleer of University Police.
Evanston Police Department officials also said they’re prepping for Dillo Day by focusing on neighborhoods close to campus with 10 to 12 extra officers on foot, bike and squad cars.
“We’re ready to respond to whatever problems arise,” said Deputy Chief Michael Perry.
The push for greater emphasis on student safety this year comes on the heels of Dillo Day 2003, which ended with 10 students in the emergency room, 107 police citations and seven arrests.
These figures — which marked a dramatic spike from the year before — were disturbing for administrators, said Mary Desler, associate vice president for student affairs.
“What was the most troubling about last year was that we got a call late in the day from the Evanston Hospital emergency room that the emergency room was clogged with drunk undergrads,” Desler said. “Had there been a crisis in the Evanston community, that emergency room and those doctors and nurses would have had a hard time responding. That’s not right.”
Desler’s concerns are not unfounded. In recent years, many universities have watched Dillo Day-like celebrations or other major events spiral into booze-induced calamities.
Hundreds of people rioted in 2003 near the University of Minnesota in Twin Cities, Minn. after the men’s hockey team clinched the NCAA championship.
Drunken riots involving about 1,000 people shook Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, after the school’s annual Veishea celebration April 18. The night ended with 38 arrests and tens of thousands of dollars in property damage, leading ISU’s President Gregory Geoffrey to cancel the event in 2005.
It will be the first time the school will not hold Veishea since the festival’s beginning in 1922, said ISU spokeswoman Annette Hacker.
The handful of arrests and hospitalized students at last year’s Dillo Day seem to pale in comparison to the massive rioting that has broken out at such schools as Iowa State. But NU faculty and administrators worry that they are just one serious incident away from Dillo Day’s cancellation.
“I think there’s real worry,” Misch, director of health services, said. “If there are 10 people in the emergency room, there are at least 100 that could have been there that we didn’t see.”
“What we’re all worried about,” he said, “is somebody will die.”
