Advocates Hope U. Senate Will Extend Good Samaritan Policy To Include Drug Overdoses

For many student activists, winning the four-year fight to implement a Good Samaritan policy in March was only the first half of the battle -- they have officially begun the second round to extend the policy to include drug use.

Undergraduate senators officially submitted a policy to the University Senate Nov. 18 to extend the Good Samaritan policy -- which protects dangerously drunk students from university sanctions if they call 911 for themselves or a friend -- so students are also protected if they overdose on drugs. Although students pushed for an all-inclusive policy when they first began lobbying for Good Samaritan legislation four years ago, they ultimately focused on only getting an alcohol-related policy passed first. With a formal extension proposal now in hand, they are setting their sights again on establishing the policy they had once envisioned.

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