SmART
transcript:
[Music begins: "Libiamo" from La Traviata]
Well, if they're having trouble speaking, getting more and more clumsy, spilling drinks. If you've been around that person a lot, you're going to know, even if that they're claiming their not drunk.
Just definitely not acting like themselves and to the point where, you know they're going to make decisions that they're going to regret.
Pulling them aside, no one likes to be humiliated, so just saying, hey you're acting kind of weird, you might want to slow down.
Or just replace the drink with something else, like juice or soda.
Or try to just distract them from their drink entirely and try to get them to do something else.
Go to your HR even, as a first step, if it's something that could be taken care of and they might be okay before the next morning.
You know when things start to get really dangerous, if they're vomiting.
When they cannot walk straight, they have had too much to drink.
Or blacking out, that can be really scary.
They get super clumsy and uncoordinated and they just don't look well.
Make sure that you don't jeopardize someone's health for any concerns you might have about repercussions. Smith is really good about their Amnesty Policy.
[Music fades]
Amnesty Policy
[Begin music:"Generator- 1st Floor" by Freelance Whales]
I'm Julie Ohotnicky and I'm the Dean of Students at Smith College.
I'm Emily Nagoski, I'm the Wellness Education Director
I am Leslie Jaffe, I am the Director of Health Services. I'm the college doctor.
I'm Becky Shaw and I'm the Director of Residence Life.
And I'm Hannah Durrant, the Assistant Director of Residence Life.
So what is the amnesty policy? The amnesty policy is a policy at Smith that says that if you call for help for a friend due to alcohol neither you nor your friend will get in judicial trobule for that call.
So I'll receive notification of each of the transports* that happen on our campus and the student who's been transported will be notified by me electronically that I understand that there's been an incident, that they've been transported, or that they've been evaluated for transport, and that they have a responsibility to follow up in order to receive amnesty. And that follow up is that they need to make an appointment in the Health Services and that they need to make an appointment in the Wellness Education Office, and they need to do that within a two week time frame.
For me the purpose of the amnesty visit is to help the student understand what happened and identify - help identify the student that may have a relationship problem with alcohol.
I do what's called BASICS - Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students, BASICS - which is the most strongly evidence-based intervention for college age women to prevent high risk drinking.
And on our website we actually have a form that the students are going to bring with them, that they're going to fill out and they're going to have Dr Jaffe and Emily Nagoski sign. And then those forms get returned to me so that I know that students have fulfilled their requirements of meetings and have participated in a conversation about what's happened.
I also point out and make very clear the issue of confidentiality, that what is said in here stays in here. Because the students has been mandated to see me, she is going to need to give me permission to notify the Dean of Students that in fact she kept her appointment with me. That is the sum total of the communication that will leave my office. There will be no sharing of anything that is said with the Dean, with parents, or even with the Wellness Education Director.
When I think about the students that traditionally come to Smith - high achieving students who potentially have never been "in trouble" before per se, and so now you come to college and you're caught with a beer kind of, and "Oh my, this is the first time I've gotten in trouble!" Which really, as I talked about earlier, you're really not in trouble, you're gonna have a conversation which is going to help you reflect on the situation.
So the amnesty policy was put in place in order to let students - to make it clear, to codify officially to students that we want them above all to be safe.
Yeah and I think that's one thing, big difference I've seen at Smith. Like, you asked what the policy was, and we have policies that we have to have because of laws and other things and safety, but it's really about what is the response to violations of those policies. Because I've worked at schools and I'm sure Hannah has as well, where it's like, "Well first strike this is what happens, second strike this is what happens, third strike you're out of housing," whereas here at Smith we really work individually with every student who comes to our attention because something hasn't gone the way they would like it to and that is a huge difference between a lot of places and something that makes me really happy to work here.
[Silent montage]
The Amnesty Policy is about education and it's about support. So we want to educate you on when you should call, we want you to call so that we can get you the right level of help, and it's really important that students don't feel held back by authority - that this is about supporting students who need help when they need help, not when it's too late.
Well, if they're having trouble speaking, getting more and more clumsy, spilling drinks. If you've been around that person a lot, you're going to know, even if that they're claiming their not drunk.
Just definitely not acting like themselves and to the point where, you know they're going to make decisions that they're going to regret.
Pulling them aside, no one likes to be humiliated, so just saying, hey you're acting kind of weird, you might want to slow down.
Or just replace the drink with something else, like juice or soda.
Or try to just distract them from their drink entirely and try to get them to do something else.
Go to your HR even, as a first step, if it's something that could be taken care of and they might be okay before the next morning.
You know when things start to get really dangerous, if they're vomiting.
When they cannot walk straight, they have had too much to drink.
Or blacking out, that can be really scary.
They get super clumsy and uncoordinated and they just don't look well.
Make sure that you don't jeopardize someone's health for any concerns you might have about repercussions. Smith is really good about their Amnesty Policy.
[Music fades]
Amnesty Policy
[Begin music:"Generator- 1st Floor" by Freelance Whales]
I'm Julie Ohotnicky and I'm the Dean of Students at Smith College.
I'm Emily Nagoski, I'm the Wellness Education Director
I am Leslie Jaffe, I am the Director of Health Services. I'm the college doctor.
I'm Becky Shaw and I'm the Director of Residence Life.
And I'm Hannah Durrant, the Assistant Director of Residence Life.
So what is the amnesty policy? The amnesty policy is a policy at Smith that says that if you call for help for a friend due to alcohol neither you nor your friend will get in judicial trobule for that call.
So I'll receive notification of each of the transports* that happen on our campus and the student who's been transported will be notified by me electronically that I understand that there's been an incident, that they've been transported, or that they've been evaluated for transport, and that they have a responsibility to follow up in order to receive amnesty. And that follow up is that they need to make an appointment in the Health Services and that they need to make an appointment in the Wellness Education Office, and they need to do that within a two week time frame.
For me the purpose of the amnesty visit is to help the student understand what happened and identify - help identify the student that may have a relationship problem with alcohol.
I do what's called BASICS - Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students, BASICS - which is the most strongly evidence-based intervention for college age women to prevent high risk drinking.
And on our website we actually have a form that the students are going to bring with them, that they're going to fill out and they're going to have Dr Jaffe and Emily Nagoski sign. And then those forms get returned to me so that I know that students have fulfilled their requirements of meetings and have participated in a conversation about what's happened.
I also point out and make very clear the issue of confidentiality, that what is said in here stays in here. Because the students has been mandated to see me, she is going to need to give me permission to notify the Dean of Students that in fact she kept her appointment with me. That is the sum total of the communication that will leave my office. There will be no sharing of anything that is said with the Dean, with parents, or even with the Wellness Education Director.
When I think about the students that traditionally come to Smith - high achieving students who potentially have never been "in trouble" before per se, and so now you come to college and you're caught with a beer kind of, and "Oh my, this is the first time I've gotten in trouble!" Which really, as I talked about earlier, you're really not in trouble, you're gonna have a conversation which is going to help you reflect on the situation.
So the amnesty policy was put in place in order to let students - to make it clear, to codify officially to students that we want them above all to be safe.
Yeah and I think that's one thing, big difference I've seen at Smith. Like, you asked what the policy was, and we have policies that we have to have because of laws and other things and safety, but it's really about what is the response to violations of those policies. Because I've worked at schools and I'm sure Hannah has as well, where it's like, "Well first strike this is what happens, second strike this is what happens, third strike you're out of housing," whereas here at Smith we really work individually with every student who comes to our attention because something hasn't gone the way they would like it to and that is a huge difference between a lot of places and something that makes me really happy to work here.
[Silent montage]
The Amnesty Policy is about education and it's about support. So we want to educate you on when you should call, we want you to call so that we can get you the right level of help, and it's really important that students don't feel held back by authority - that this is about supporting students who need help when they need help, not when it's too late.