Queen’s to ban alcohol during Frosh Week

Queen’s University, the site of at least two alcohol-related deaths last year, will ban alcohol entirely from residences during Frosh Week — even for those who have reached the legal drinking age, reports the Queen’s Journal.

University officials told the Journal that 92 per cent of first-year students in residence are under the legal drinking age anyway.

The Alcohol Working Group came up with the idea, stating the ban would “clearly signal Queen’s commitment to reducing alcohol-related harm, particularly at a critical transitional time when the risk of alcohol misuse among 1st year students has been known to be high (with a tragic alcohol-related accidental death of one resident during Orientation week in 2010).”

Coroner Roger Skinner recommended a review of campus alcohol policies after determining that the 2010 deaths of Cameron Bruce, who fell out of a window on the sixth-floor of a residence, and Habib Khan, who died after falling through a skylight, were alcohol-related.

Students caught with alcohol during Frosh Week will will be given “educational assignments” and watch their alcohol be poured out.

The normal rules that allow drinking among those of legal age will return Sept. 11.

Graduate student residences will not face the new rule.