Williams College addresses binge drinking problems on campus

12:00AM / Wednesday, April 26, 2000Print Story | Email Story

Â Â Â Â The hospitalization of a prospective Williams College student for alcohol poisoning earlier this month has both resulted in the disciplining of five first-year students and the focusing of attention on the nationally-compelling issue of college students' binge drinking. Â Â Â Â The prospective student was found unconscious in his own vomit Monday, April 10 by three Williams College security officers. According to a story in last week's The Williams Record, when the officers arrived they found several students trying unsuccessfully to wake the prospective student, who remained unresponsive. Â Â Â Â Paramedics were summoned, and the prospective student was rushed by ambulance to North Adams Regional Hospital. Â Â Â Â After treatment, the prospective student fully recovered, according to the Record story. Â Â Â Â Neither Security Director Jean Thorndike, who was quoted in the Record story, nor Health Services Director Ruth Harrison, would speak about the incident, referring questions to college Director of Public Affairs James G. Kolesar. Â Â Â Â Speaking yesterday, Kolesar said that "five first-year students have had disciplinary action taken against them," although he declined to characterize the form that action took. Â Â Â Â "Care for the student is the first consideration," Kolesar stressed, adding in acknowledgement that colleges also must confront the issue of liability if a student or prospective student is harmed as a result of alcohol abuse. Â Â Â Â Binge drinking among college students is widespread and, according to a release last month from the Harvard School of Public Health, the percentage of frequent binge drinkers among college students has gone up. Â Â Â Â This is one of the findings of the College Alcohol Survey's 1999 survey, whose results are published in the March issue of the Journal of American College Health. Â Â Â Â The Harvard School of Public Health's College Alcohol Survey (CAS) is the foremost survey and analysis of college students' drinking behavior. The CAS defines binge drinkers as men who have had five or more drinks in a row at least once in the two-week period prior to being surveyed. For women, binge drinking entails four or more drinks. The initial CAS took place in 1993, followed by repeated surveys in 1997 and 1999. Â Â Â Â Binge drinking, in 1999 as in the previous surveys, is engaged in by four out of 10 students. Â Â Â Â But in the release, Henry Wechsler, director of college alcohol studies at Harvard School of Public Health, "What is particularly disturbing is that we have seen an increase in the percentage of frequent binge drinkers to 23 percent." Â Â Â Â Frequent binge drinkers are those who binge at least once per week. Frequent binge drinkers are nine times more likely to miss a class than are non-binge drinkers, and five times more likely to have unplanned sex or fail to use contraception. Â Â Â Â Secondhand effects of binge drinking - effects on the entire college community - include a higher likelihood of arguments or physical fights, experiencing unwanted sexual advances, and having study or sleep interrupted. Â Â Â Â And binge drinking has been associated with student deaths at, among other colleges, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, law enforcement officials recalled. Â Â Â Â Yesterday, Kolesar said drinking to excess has been "a college phenomenon as long as anyone can remember, but more attention is being paid to it." Â Â Â Â At Williams, "In the past couple of years we have instituted a more explicit range of sanctions," he said. Â Â Â Â If a student is found breaking college policy or state laws, these results can include being brought in to talk to security, and meeting with deans. Â Â Â Â And education about alcohol includes increasing student awareness about the ways students are responsible for each other's behavior, he said. Â Â Â Â An editorial in the April 18 Record argued for lowering the drinking age as a means to increase education of students about alcohol. Â Â Â Â And yesterday Kolesar said "we'd probably do a better job of educating students if the drinking age were lowered." Â Â Â Â That is because legally, no one under age 21 is supposed to be coming in contact with alcohol. Â Â Â Â The 21-year-old drinking age, said Kolesar, "complicates the educational component." Â Â Â Â And, he added, "some colleges have found that pushing drinking off campus is not the answer, because that brings driving into the picture." Â Â Â Â "I feel we are making progress [regarding student education about alcohol]," said Kolesar. Â Â Â Â Asked if students were informed that getting prospective students drunk, or allowing them to get drunk while under the students' umbrella of hospitality was not the done thing, Kolesar replied, "they certainly get told explicitly now." Â Â Â Â At the college's second overnight for prospective students, April 16-17, students and prospective students were told that they would be held to the code of the college, and that failure to do so could lead to the rescinding of their admission. Â Â Â Â Chief of Police Arthur A. Parker Jr. said alcohol abuse "clearly is an area of concern that both the college administration, its security department, and our department clearly share." Â Â Â Â "Clearly Cops in Shops [at liquor stores] is one method we're going to employ to try to educate and enforce the law, not just for students at Williams but anybody underage. Â Â Â Â Parker said when he addressed the house presidents at Williams on Monday "the question came up about lowering the drinking age." Â Â Â Â Recalling that the drinking age was lowered from 21 to 18 in 1973, [when he himself turned 18] Parker said it was raised again some six years later and that "part of the reason was because people my age had buried too many friends, and that's an education that I wouldn't want anybody else to have to learn."

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North Adams Housing Authority Appoints Interim Director

Staff Reports06:07AM / Thursday, October 22, 2026

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The North Adams Housing Authority (NAHA) Board of Commissioners appointed Lisa Labonte as its interim executive director during an emergency meeting Wednesday.

"Lisa is a dedicated and highly regarded employee whom the board trusts to provide interim leadership of the housing authority," Chairwoman Leigh Uqdah wrote in a statement released by NAHA Wednesday afternoon. "She has been with the organization since June 1999"

Labonte replaces longtime director Jennifer Hohn, who resigned earlier this month.

Uqdah wrote that HUD notified NAHA as a courtesy that the authority had yet to submit its application for Federal Assistance SF-424 – Operating Fund Grant, along with HUD-52722 and HUD-52723 forms. The deadline to update the Massachusetts CY2027 Operating Subsidy (Form MA034) was 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 21.

She wrote that failure to submit all required documentation by this deadline could result in the agency not receiving operating subsidies for the 2027 calendar year.

The catch was that only an Executive Director or Interim Executive Director whose contact information was listed in the PIH Information Center (PIC) could submit the paperwork.

"In an effort to stabilize and secure funding the board voted, with Colin Todd's absence, unanimously to appoint Lisa LaBonte, Director of Operations, as Interim Executive Director, effective immediately," Uqdah wrote.

The commission held a meeting on Oct. 15 to discuss an appointment, but after a lengthy executive session, it never made a decision. They had planned to take up the discussion again during a future meeting.

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