Student’s death shames Freshers’ Week

What a tragedy that it’s taken the death of a young student in London to highlight the irresponsible nature of university Freshers’ Week promotions.

While the death of Tom Reid, 19, at a freshers party in the London club Koko may or may not have been down to alcohol consumption, the incident has given fresh impetus to the anti-booze brigade while at the same time serving to shame the promoters of such events.

Reid collapsed and died at an event for University College London (UCL) in the early hours of Monday morning at a night billed by UCL’s Student’s Union as the “First Night of the Rest of your Life”.

Eyewitnesses and doctors have repeatedly stated that they do not believe alcohol was responsible for Reid’s death, yet that was not enough to stop the likes of the Daily Mail pouncing on the theme. Indeed, prior to a re-write, the Mail stated quite categorically that his death was down to “Alcohol poisoning”. It was a sensationalist, yet predictable reaction.

Although it was subsequently pointed out to the paper that it had no justification for such a statement, the headlines did little to enhance the reputation of alcohol at a time when the trade is intensifying efforts to promote a sensible drinking culture.

Whether or not Reid drunk too much booze, the incident served to highlight the remaining events on the Freshers’ Week calendar at UCL – which we can safely assume mirrors those of just about very university in the UK. In fact, UCL has even seen fit to extend Freshers’ Week into Freshers Fortnight, with events planned well into next week for newly-arrived students.

The union’s website billing for the £13-a-head sell-out event at Koko promised fresher students top DJs and a “Night of Mayhem” with cheap drinks promotions.

Following the death, an “All you dare to drink for £15” night at the Den and Centro bar near the halls of residence was cancelled on advice from Camden’s drinks licensing unit, while the union also cancelled its planned “Vodpop” night at London club Pacha on Monday evening.

The very fact that the Den and Centro bar was even considering offering a £15-all-you-can-drink promotion is bad enough, but to then take it even further by challenging young students to drink as much as they “dare” is irresponsible in the extreme.

Are these places trying to encourage students to get plastered? That certainly seems to be the message. We are all for having a good time, and realise that alcohol is a key component of the social whirlwind of Freshers’ Week, having been through it ourselves and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Yet these young students are, for the most part, vulnerable and impressionable. They are eager to ‘fit in’ among their new-found friends and many have just left home for the first time.

Now is the time to educate them about the dangers of binge drinking, of how alcohol not only has the ability to help you enjoy your time at university, but can also help to ruin it and cause even bigger problems later in life.

Education of young drinkers is supposed to be paramount to the industry, so it’s about time somebody made a stand against such gratuitous, shameless promotions such as that which the Den and Centro was going to offer.

While that particular bar may have belatedly – albeit sensibly – decided to ditch the offer, you can guarantee that other university bars across the country are running similar promotions.

The problem, it seems, is not just a British one, as this story of a vodka-swilling, window-smashing American student proves. The comedy element may be the first thing to strike you about this story, but the underlying current is one of a guy being encouraged by his peers to drink so much alcohol as to seriously injure himself and wind up under arrest.

If this is the culture they are growing up in, what hope is there for the future?

Alan Lodge, 30.09.2009 

Do you agree that Freshers’ Week encourages irresponsible drinking? Should universities and student’s unions do more to educate students about the dangers of binge-drinking? Email your views to debate@thedrinksbusiness.com

Helena Conibear, executive director, AIM – Alcohol in Moderation

The National Union of Students has done  a huge amount of work over the last four years, (principally with support from Diageo), to make student bars more responsible in their promotional offerings,and student education.  “The Choice Is Yours” campaign in 2008 reached 1/2 million students through the National Union of Student. In 2009,The ‘Are you on top of your game?’ campaign is part of an ongoing initiative between NUSSL and Diageo GB to promote responsible drinking.
 
Many student bars also participate in the  ‘Best Bar None’ awards, which promote sensible drinking practices by accrediting Students’ Unions that meet best practice standards on crime prevention, door policy, drinks policies and other bar related issues. 10 universities are participating in the ‘Know What’s In It’ materials of quizes and games  ( Bath, Manchester, Cardiff, Plymouth, Paisley, Glasgow,  Surrey, Essex, Leicester and Northumbria)in 2009. Hopefully DRINKAWARE will draw together and extend this work on campuses.
 
The problem with this tragic case is that it was an off campus premises ‘cashing in’ on fresher’s week , Irrespective of whether there was a tragic death or whether it was alcohol related, all you can drink promotions for a set sum or similar irresponsible offerings have to be clamped down on – by the majority of premises abiding by BBPA codes and other responsible operators – as the minority tarnish the huge amount of work done in the ontrade to encourage a culture of responsible enjoyment of alcohol and to comply with the huge raft of legislations regulating their operations.