UPEI dealing with frosh week differently than Acadia

The University of Prince Edward Island’s orientation for new first year students begins Saturday, and officials are looking at how to deal with frosh week binge drinking.

Just yesterday, Acadia University in Nova Scotia banned alcohol from residences during their orientation week.

But UPEI is taking a different approach.

“It's a pretty fine line between having fun and going overboard,” said Tyler Dockendorff, residence life co-ordinator at UPEI.

He'll be busy this week making sure students living on his dormitory floor don't drink too much and those underage don't drink at all, and if they do over-consume, he's responsible with making sure they're OK.

“I've helped put people to bed, make sure they're on their sides,” Dockendorff said.

Last year, a student at Acadia died from drinking too much during frosh week.

“We're going to try to have the maximum impact on them and we're going to try to keep them as safe as possible,” said Ray Ivany, president of Acadia.

Nova Scotia’s chief public health officer said changes need to be made at the university level to makes sure it doesn't happen again.

“I think binge drinking is certainly part of the transition of moving away from home and trying to understand how to drink responsibly. Are there issues of binge drinking? Of course there are,” said Kelton Thompson, UPEI residence services manager.

But Thompson says banning alcohol from dorm rooms isn't how they plan to combat booze binges.

“Responsible drinking. That's the approach that we're looking for. It's not about saying you can't drink. It's about understanding drinking and there's a responsibility to drinking properly. And they're going to be facing that for the rest of their lives,” Thompson said.

UPEI is launching a new poster campaign to reduce binge-drinking.

“You set your own limit, you're an adult now. You can make your own decisions, but when those decisions start affecting other people and the safety of the students themselves then that's when it would become an issue,” Dockendorff said.

Statistics Canada found younger Islanders binge drink more than their counterparts in all other provinces.

The office of P.E.I.'s chief public health officer says first-year university students are the most at risk when binge drinking.

It says helping them learn their limit is the best way to prevent death and injury from happening here.