country,” he said.

“We need to wake up and say,
there’s a problem here. If we see
a problem, are we prepared to do
something about it or not?”

Loss at STU, one year later

Almost a year later, the topic of Andrew
Bartlett’s death is still uncomfortable on
the St. Thomas University campus.

Bartlett, who was from the small
tourist town of St. Andrews, N.B., was
supposed to graduate last May.

Friends said he planned to become
a teacher and loved STU so much that
he didn’t want to graduate.

He’s been remembered as someone
who made friends quickly and by
another friend as the most responsible
person she knew. His family, who
declined to be interviewed for this
story, have set up a scholarship fund
and hold an annual golf tournament in
his name.

Bartlett was proud to have made
the volleyball team in his final year and
friends remembered him skipping trips
to the campus bar to go to practice.

He was with his team during his
last night at an initiation party that
started on campus.

After Bartlett’s death, reports of
the party led to an investigation by the
university. Then-university president
Dennis Cochrane made it clear the team
wasn’t responsible for Bartlett’s death,
but suspended the men’s volleyball
team from playing for the rest of the
season for violating the university’s
hazing policies.

The university also drafted a new
code of conduct after Bartlett’s death,
which could penalize students for
inappropriate behaviour on-campus or
off-campus, if they are representing the
university in some way.

Barry Craig, vice-president
academic at STU, said Bartlett’s death
wasn’t the trigger for the new code of
conduct — but it certainly accelerated
the process.

“That wasn’t the first time we
thought of this, that wasn’t the first time
we had an alcohol-related incident,”
he explained. “But it was certainly the
one that said, right, OK, we can’t keep
putting this off. We have to deal with
this.”

The draft code addresses hazing,
although Ryan Hamilton, a hazing
expert at the University of New
Brunswick, says it could take more than
a set of policies to eliminate it from
university campuses.

“People die every single year
because of things related to hazing
and usually related to alcohol at
universities,” he said. “It happens year,
after year, after year. You would think
that if somebody dying was enough, it
would stop happening.

“The reality is, it’s not a simple
problem to solve,” he continued.
“Drinking is a legal act, alcohol is
readily available [and] there’s a culture

within universities where alcohol is
promoted. You can’t walk around the
campus without seeing drink special
signs.”

This year, for the first time, UNB
asked Hamilton to meet with every
varsity sports team to talk about hazing
at the beginning of the year.

“I wish it was enough. I wish the
educational interventions that I provide
were enough to stop [hazing] but I
think it’s more complicated than that,”
he said.

“Tt takes a lot of people seeing the
problem and working toward solutions
than a policy document or a one-hour
session.”

Changing the culture around drinking
STU has also cracked down on events
that focus on alcohol consumption.

Each year, Harrington Hall
residence — where it’s reported the
hazing party Bartlett was at began
— celebrates April 6th Day. The day
became legend after former students
skipped a concert and drank all day.

The drinking starts at midnight,
continues all day long and is seen as a
bonding event for the house.

In the past, house committees at
Harrington Hall could use the money
raised from collecting empty bottles
during the year to buy alcohol for those
of age to drink on April 6th Day.

But that’s no longer allowed. The
university has also cracked down on
students going to class drunk on this
day and on other days, when other
residences have similar, 24-hour
celebrations.

“{Drinking] is probably part of
everybody’s university experience
or most people ... but when you look
around and you see that people die from
some kinds of behaviour, [like] getting
loaded and getting in a car, it’s not as
easy to laugh off anymore,” Craig sad.

“T accept the fact that young
people in university are going to drink
too much from time to time, but as a
university administrator, it would be
irresponsible for me to say, “Yeah, this
group of students on this day should
start drinking at midnight and drink
all day long and that’s a matter of no
concern to me.””

Managing the stigma

For Dianne Sheehan, one of the hardest
parts of losing her son Nick was dealing
with the way he died.

“You get a stigma attached to a
tragic death and as a family and as
young and old, it’s [hard] to deal with
that.”

At St. Francis Xavier, university
administrators aren’t eager to link any
changes to university policy to Nick’s
death.

“We’ve been on a path of
managing behaviour and educating
students. We’ve been on that path
even before the tragedy of the student
falling from the window,” said Keith

(Pe auihe

SPECIAL REPORT ON ALCOHOL: HOW MUCH DO WE BUY?
AN ILLUSTRATED LOOK AT PER-CAPITA ALCOHOL SALES ACROSS THE COUNTRY

WHILE INDIVIDUAL PROVINCES HAVE DIFFERENT ALCOHOL-RELATED LAWS AND RESTRICTIONS, DO ALCOHOL SALES VARY GEOGRAPHICALLY.
TOO? AND HOW MUCH BOOZE ARE We BUYING TODAY. COMPARED TO GENERATIONS BEFORE US? CANADIAN UNIVERSITY PRESS HAS
PLOTTED OUT PER-CAPITA ALCOHOL SALES ACROSS THE COUNTRY FROM THE LAST FOUR DECADES (BASED ON THE t+ POPULATION)
AND SEPARATED 2010 SALES BY PROVINCE AND TERRITORY 10 SEE WHERE - AND WHEN ~ THE MOST ALCOHOL IS SOLD'IN CANADA

TOTAL SALES IN ALCOHOL, ALL PER CAPITA

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Canadians and alcohol: How much do we buy?

 

(HE BY ESE WHLMG OP BMRA TEN SLED YEA CIMA OP
SOLACE STATSTIS CANADA CONS TABLE 1-208 SALES OF ALDOMOL BEVERAGES
(BY VOLUME VALUE AND PER CAPITA 16 YEARS AND OLDER FISCAL YEARS
ENCED MARDS 31 ANALIAL

An illustrated look at per-capita alcohol sales across the country

By Jessie Willms and Emma Godmere — Canadian University Press
OTTAWA, TORONTO (CUP) — While individual provinces have different

alcohol-related laws and restrictions, do alcohol sales vary geographically, too?
And how much booze are we buying today, compared to generations before us?
Canadian University Press has plotted out per-capita alcohol sales across the

country from the last four decades (based on the 15+ population) and separated

2010 sales by province and territory to see where — and when — the most

alcohol is sold in Canada.

Publicover, the university’s vice-
president of recruitment and student
experience.

“Our work in educating students
and reviewing policy and procedure is
not linked to that incident.”

And while Sheehan likes the idea
of having codes of conduct that guide
student behaviour, she’s not convinced
they can prevent another death like her
son’s from happening.

“A code of conduct would be
wonderful, but you can’t follow these
kids every second of the day,” she said.

Her youngest daughter just began
her first year at the University of
Ottawa. People have asked her if she’s
calling her daughter every day because
of what happened to Nick. But she’s
not worried.

What does worry her is that no
one in her daughter’s residence held
a meeting to talk about responsible
drinking after Jonathan Andrews’ death

last month.

“When something like that
happens, I don’t think it needs to be a
huge lecture, but I think it should be
brought to the kids’ attention,” she said.

“It’s nothing more than it’s a
reminder to kids to think before you
drink: be cautious and make smart
decisions.”

It will take a long time to change
the culture around drinking, which
Sheehan said is a different type
of drinking than when she was in
university.

Until then, the best advice she can
offer students is to be smart about the
choices they make.

“Kids are going to be kids no
matter what. You pray to God you
taught your kids the right things and
that they’ ll use their judgement.”

13