KINGSTON, Ont. - Queen's University will take a close look at the culture of drinking on its campus following two separate alcohol-related student deaths during the past school year.
The regional supervising coroner in Kingston, Ont., examined the death of Cameron Bruce, an 18-year-old, first-year student from Westport, Conn., and the death of Habib Khan, a 19-year-old student from Saudi Arabia.
Bruce fell out a residence window and Khan fell through a library skylight. The deaths were accidental and alcohol was a factor in both, Skinner concluded.
University officials said Tuesday they would implement Skinner's recommendations aimed at preventing similar deaths, including developing educational programs to change the culture of drinking on campus.
"Like other universities, we are wrestling with the societal issue of alcohol consumption and excessive drinking in the university-aged population," said John Pierce, associate vice-principal and dean of student affairs.
But unlike other universities, Queen's is particularly infamous for its homecoming parties of old. The rowdy annual celebration that saw thousands gathering to drink and dozens of arrests was cancelled by a former principal in 2008. Current principal Daniel Woolf decided last year to continue the cancellation for another three years.
Despite the cancellation, a recent unofficial homecoming gathering saw 95 people arrested and 255 charges laid, mostly liquor violations and breach of peace.
But police said the number of arrests was lower than in previous years.
Police also responded to several incidents, including rowdy keg parties, assaulting a police officer, indecent acts, a vandalized car, a break and enter, and a report of kids throwing tree branches onto a bus.
At a massive homecoming street party in 2005, a car was overturned and set on fire.
The issue of underage drinking is something all universities should look at, and hopefully learn from each other's strategies, Woolf said Tuesday.
"I don't believe it's peculiarly a Queen's issue," he said. "Safety is our utmost concern and what I would call harm reduction. That indeed was one of the primary motivators in the original cancellation of homecoming by my predecessor and my decision to prolong its suspension."
Woolf said the university is taking Skinner's recommendations seriously and moving toward implementing them.
In addition to the recommendation about the culture of alcohol on campus, Skinner suggested an "accelerated" review of the issue of alcohol in residences and the feasibility of obtaining student consent for the inspection of dorm rooms for alcohol.
He also recommended reviewing the campus alcohol policy and removing health and safety issues, including alcohol, from the jurisdiction of the peer/student judiciary.
