Recent articles about alcohol policies at NU

[helicoptermom]

<p>This article from USA Today may help to explain the connection between Matthew Sunshine’s mother, Dr. Suzanne Fields, and the Red Watch Band program ([Red</a> Watch Band friends don’t let friends get too drunk - USATODAY.com](<a href=“http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-06-14-redwatchband_N.htm]Red”>http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-06-14-redwatchband_N.htm)):

When Suzanne Fields’ son died of an alcohol overdose last year, a few days after completing his first year of college, she decided she wanted to keep other students from suffering the same fate.</p>

<p>“I thought at the time my son died that his death was preventable, that I wanted to do something to prevent other students from dying the way he did,” she says.</p>

<p>So when Shirley Strum Kenny, the president of Stony Brook University, where Fields is a professor and administrator, asked if there was anything she could do to help, Fields suggested a program to empower students to help their peers when they’ve had too much to drink.

</p>

<p>According to reports published shortly after Matthew’s death ([SESP</a> freshman’s death caused by alcohol intoxication - Campus](<a href=“http://media.www.dailynorthwestern.com/media/storage/paper853/news/2008/05/30/Campus/Sesp-Freshmans.Death.Caused.By.Alcohol.Intoxication-3380882.shtml]SESP”>http://media.www.dailynorthwestern.com/media/storage/paper853/news/2008/05/30/Campus/Sesp-Freshmans.Death.Caused.By.Alcohol.Intoxication-3380882.shtml)), fellow students thought there was sufficient reason for concern to check on him during the night after he had to be helped back to his room:

Sunshine was drinking in Foster House Monday night before students helped him back to his room, according to a statement from Cmdr. Tom Guenther of the Evanston Police Department.</p>

<p>Students checked on Sunshine during the night and said he was sleeping fine, but he was unresponsive when a student went to check on him at 11:45 a.m. Tuesday, according to the statement.

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<p>A program like Red Watch Band could have heightened awareness of the possibility that he was not in fact “sleeping fine,” but suffering from acute alcohol poisoning, and prompted someone to call for the medical aid that would probably have saved his life.</p>