Drunken liability

Recently, the Office of Student Life, with some help from Housing, Campus Safety and Santa Clara's legal advisors, set out to do the unthinkable: to beat students at their own game.

The game in this case involves rampant alcohol use, which, for some reason, students just can't seem to give up.

So they created these beautifully crafted forms that are based on a new policy: When a student is intoxicated and refuses medical help, his or her friends can agree to take responsibility by signing a form.

What a great way to teach students responsibility by making them liable for one another.

What Housing and the Office of Student Life should have done was to consult the Cowell Student Health Center. The average student is not a medic.

The idea of placing a student's life in the hands of another is not only hazardous -- it's an outright dismissal of Santa Clara's responsibility to ensure student safety.

The average student most likely doesn't know how to handle any sort of medical emergency, much less how to recognize the symptoms of or treat alcohol poisoning.

Even if a half-drunken student does sign the form, who knows if he or she will become increasingly intoxicated as the night progresses, especially since the body metabolizes only one drink per hour.

Assistant Dean for Student Life Matthew Duncan told The Santa Clara last week that those who sign the forms wouldn't be held legally responsible for intoxicated students.

Yeah, right. Then what's the point of having a liability form? If the university needs the caregiver's information, then write it on a piece of paper.

The point is, a contract is a contract. And signing one could make anyone legally responsible for whatever situations that may arise.

If these forms persist, then the student body may also be in need of some legal advice.