ANYTIME ATTHE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT VOICE comOUDailyWEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2009

HAILEY R. BRANSONProjects Editor

The memory is fading from the OU campus.It is an effect of time, an effect of an ever-changing pres-

ence on a four-year campus.But that memory of what happened five years ago today is

far from gone.Early Thursday, Sept. 30, 2004, OU freshman Blake Adam

Hammontree, 19, was found dead in the Sigma Chi fraternity house at 1405 Elm Ave. Hammontree, a Sigma Chi pledge, died of alcohol poisoning, the medical examiner ruled, according to Norman Police Department Capt. Leonard Judy.

“It, to me, was one of the most difficult things I’ve gone through as president of the university,” OU President David Boren said last week. “It was so painful.”

‘A hall party, in essence, out of control’

The night before Hammontree was found, the fraternity was having its big-brother, little-brother party, an event dur-ing which pledges were matched with older members as mentors.

The event became a raucous party, and alcohol was served out of members’ rooms, according to an affidavit written by Detective Jim Parks of the Norman Police Department, and cited in The Daily in October 2004.

An anonymous student cited as “a former Sigma Chi pledge who wished to remain anonymous” told The Daily that pledges were pressured to binge drink during such parties.

“It was a hall party, in essence, out of control,” Boren said last week. “And the whole scene was such that it reflected the

chaos of what had gone on.”At some point, Hammontree laid down in a second-floor

bedroom belonging to his Sigma Chi older brother, John Frame, a sophomore.

Hammontree was believed to have been drinking beer and Hot Damn, a cinnamon schnapps shot, Tim Kuykendall, the district attorney at the time, said a week later.

Hammontree had been helped to a bathroom, where he vomited multiple times, according to the affidavit.

At about 10:30 a.m. the next morning, Sigma Chi members found Hammontree “cold, stiff, purple and beyond resuscita-tion,” the affidavit stated.

Norman police received a call from the house at 10:48 a.m. Thursday morning for a “possible medical call,” accord-ing to the police incident report filed afterward. Police found

Remembering a Son‘He was sincere, genuine and just fun’

Student’s death fi ve years ago still resonates on campus

Special Section

FIVE YEARS CONTINUES ON PAGE 2

JAMIE HUGHESEditor-in-Chief

In September 1997, the OU football team defeated Syracuse University and won its first home game in nearly two years. The crowd stormed the field, and, in the process, Jack Hammontree lost his 12-year-old son.

Jack searched for a few hours before calling the OU Police Department.

“[I] said, ‘I think I lost my son,’” Jack said recently. “They said, ‘You wouldn’t be Mr. Hammontree, would you?’ And he was in there playing ping-pong and eating donuts.”

Seven years later, in the same month, Jack would lose his son, Blake, again at OU.

But this time would be different. There would be no happy reunion in the police department.

High school Blake Adam Hammontree never had to try hard in school.

He tested well but never wanted to be in the gifted and talent-ed programs his elementary schools tried to place him in.

“He hated that stuff,” Jack said. “He would test off the charts on all the verbal stuff, but it wasn’t important to him to prove it to anybody.”

Blake’s younger sister, Olivia, now 19 and an education sophomore at Northwestern Oklahoma State University, also said school came naturally to Blake.

“School was easy for him and a little tougher for me,” she said. “[We were] just complete opposites.”

Still, Olivia and Blake were close friends, even if they did fight like brothers and sisters do.

Blake finished his sophomore year at Enid High School before he and his family moved to Medford, a small town just north of Enid.

His mother, LeAnn, said she and Jack had told Blake he could commute to Enid High School every morning, but he passed on the opportunity, LeAnn said, because “he wasn’t much of a morning person.”

Blake was not a serious athlete, but he played almost every sport until junior high school. When he arrived in Medford, he started playing baseball again.

A lot of his friends talked him into playing again, Jack said, but it was a light-hearted game for him.

“They had a good time,” Jack said. “They teased him about having the record for walks.”

“It was more to just have fun,” LeAnn said.

Becoming a SoonerBlake took the residual ACT at OU and made a 24, which

was then the qualifying score for acceptance to OU. “He got exactly a 24,” Jack said. “He was so excited it was

funny.” Nearly three decades after his father had done the same,

Blake moved into Walker Center in fall 2004. “It was like a time capsule,” Jack said. “We’re talking 30

years, and it was just like the same. A little bit of paint here, but just the same.”

Blake never got to declare a major at OU. He had thought about law school but did not get a chance

to commit to it.“We always knew if he decided he wanted to be a lawyer,

he could do it,” LeAnn said. “He just wasn’t real serious about it yet.”

A wealth of friendsBlake was known for making friends easily. That is what

his family remembers most about his high school years.When his family moved to Medford, he “made every friend

over there,” LeAnn said. She said she couldn’t pinpoint exactly what drew people to Blake but that he made friends wherever he went.

And when he came to OU, that did not change.“He just attracted friends,” LeAnn said. “He was sincere,

genuine and just fun.”Blake’s parents knew his outgoing personality would draw

him to a fraternity.LeAnn was a member of the Delta Gamma sorority while

she attended OU, but Jack never joined a fraternity. “We assumed he’d do a fraternity, but we never knew

which one,” Jack said.

The callIn September, Jack was preparing to visit Norman for

Dad’s Day festivities. Blake’s fraternity, Sigma Chi, had a father-son Atari tournament scheduled. Jack had mastered Atari in law school.

But a tragic turn of events would bump up his visit by a week.

Jack was at his office in Medford, where he is an associate district judge, when a family friend called to tell him Blake was found dead in the Sigma Chi house.

“I got a call from Dennis McIntyre,” Jack said. “His son was Blake’s longtime friend, and David’s the one who found Blake. His first comments were, ‘Jack, you need to sit down.’

“Then he said, ‘They found Blake at the fraternity, and he’s dead.’”

Jack said the feeling was surreal. LeAnn had been to the doctor earlier that morning for a

blood test and decided to return home because she had a sore throat. She was starting to get into bed when the home phone rang.

It was Joan McIntyre, Dennis’ wife. LeAnn said she does not remember the details of the con-

versation, but she said Joni kept her on the phone. She told LeAnn to get dressed and pack a bag.

Jack came home shortly after he was called. He and LeAnn still had to tell Olivia.

“We got her out of school and just headed out,” LeAnn said.

Blake’s family arrived at the roped-off Sigma Chi house in about two-and-a-half hours.

They spent the night in the Sooner Hotel and Suites, about a block east of the fraternity house. The next morning, LeAnn collected Blake’s belongings from his dorm room.

Blake’s parents decided to bury their son outside Medford but had his funeral service at Central Christian Church in Enid.

“I’ve always been happy with that choice because that’s where Blake grew up,” LeAnn said.

But the church was not big enough to hold all the lives Blake had touched.

“Between Enid and Medford people and people at OU, it was overflowing,” LeAnn said.

No bitternessThe Hammontrees did not want to have a large part in

developing OU’s alcohol policy, which was implemented as a result of Blake’s death.

“It was very traumatic because the drinking policy was so drastic,” Jack said. “I mean, oh my gosh, people were upset. In all honesty, Blake wouldn’t want to be the poster boy for sobriety. He’d want to be responsible about it, nobody getting hurt, everyone having a good time.”

He was surprised at his feelings toward those involved with his son’s death, he said.

“I never had any of that bitterness,” he said. “That’s amaz-ing I didn’t, probably. It was funny — I guess because I’m a judge everybody just assumed there’d be a big lawsuit, but it was never a consideration.”

REMEMBER CONTINUES ON PAGE 2

Blake Adam Hammontree is shown in family photographs with his father, Jack; his mother, LeAnn; his sister, Olivia, and as a child. Hammontree died at age 19 as a freshman at OU in September 2004.PHOTOS SUBMITTED

Sooner Sampler » THE DAILY’S MEREDITH MORIAK ASKED STUDENTS WHAT THEY THINK ABOUT OU’S ALCOHOL POLICY

“I think it’s the best policy for it being

an academic setting, so I think it’s good

that they adhere to that. But at the

same time, I don’t really know how many

people follow that so I think it’s hard to

determine if it’s effective.”

-TAYLOR OVER, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE JUNIOR

“I think it’s good. I like that you have a

chance to test out the waters, in that you

have three strikes and then you’re out.”

-JOHN GAGE, MECHANICAL ENGINEERING SOPHOMORE

“I think it’s good that they make us do

the three classes, especially if you’re

greek. They just gave you a little more

information than you already knew.”

-ALISON BAYLIS, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE FRESHMAN

“I honestly don’t have too much of an

opinion on that because I didn’t drink

too much before I was 21 ... I fi gure most

of the colleges out there nowadays have

some sort of anti-alcohol policy except

on game days.”

-DEREK RILEY, INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS SOPHOMORE

Hammontree’s body in the room. It was later determined that his blood alcohol level

was .42, or five times the legal limit for drunken driving. A blood alcohol level of .35 is comparable to surgical anesthesia, according to information from OU Health Services.

“In this case, no one thought to take him to the emergency room,” Boren said last week. “No one called a medical professional. You wish that they had.”

The aftermath

Within hours of police finding Hammontree’s body, Boren announced the closure of the Sigma Chi house and the suspension of the fraternity’s activities.

The next week, police arrested Cody Barrington, a 21-year-old Sigma Chi member. Barrington was charged with a felony count of furnishing alcohol to a minor. The alcohol he purchased was believed to be the same kind Hammontree was drinking the night he died.

The Cleveland County dis-trict attorney’s office later issued subpoenas to other witnesses to Hammontree’s death, some of whom were Sigma Chi members.

Kuykendall told The Daily at the time that the wit-nesses were given subpoenas requiring them to tes-tify before the Oklahoma Multi-County Grand Jury be-cause they were uncooperative with the investigation into Hammontree’s death.

Testifying would serve the primary purpose of bring-ing more details to light, rather than incriminating the individuals, Kuykendall said.

Four members of Sigma Chi testified before the grand jury on November 16.

Alcohol committee and a new policy

On Oct. 6, 2004, Boren announced the creation of a 20-member committee of student group leaders, fac-ulty, staff and alumni as well as Kuykendall (who also was the Phi Delta Theta adviser) to report to him about alcohol abuse and underage drinking on campus.

Kuykendall later was replaced on the committee be-cause of his involvement in the investigation.

Less than a month after the committee was formed, on October 28, police sent a member of the Delta Upsilon fraternity to the emergency room after finding him intoxicated in his dorm room.

“What’s disconcerting to me is how little impact (Hammontree’s death) seems to have,” Boren told The Daily that November.

Boren announced on December 2 a 15-point policy to curb alcohol abuse and underage drinking, devel-oped with the input of the committee.

Major points within the policy included making fra-ternities and residence halls dry, a mandatory “three strikes” policy for students and organizations, the elimination of unregulated summer rush activities by fraternities and the establishment of the SafeRide voucher system through a local taxi or public transpor-tation company.

Boren said in an interview last week that campus is not completely dry because there are still events held on campus in which third party vendors are allowed to sell drinks to those 21 and older. He said he under-stands that there are people who drink responsibly.

Policy approved among string of alcohol-related incidents

The OU Board of Regents ap-proved Boren’s policy on Dec. 6, 2004, one day after a freshman, Charles David Palmisano, was taken to the hospital after police found him intoxicated in Walker Center.

Three days before the policy was approved, December 3, a

different student, an unnamed male, was sent to the hospital from the Gamma Phi Beta sorority house after police found him intoxicated and vomiting.

Sources told The Daily days later that the student was a former member of Sigma Chi.

On December 8, another student, a 21-year-old Couch Center resident, was sent to the hospital after being found by police in a lounge. He had drank a lot of alcohol while taking prescription pills, he told the police.

The enforcement of the new alcohol policy began on Jan. 18, 2005.

Several amendments to the alcohol policy have been made in the years following its enactment.

Boren said last week that he is happy with the steps he took with the committee and the policy and that if he had to do it all over again, he would do it the same way.

Sourcing: A variety of archival information, includ-ing past reporting and information from The Oklahoma Daily, police and court records were used in combina-tion with recent interviews for this article.

2 WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2009 Special Section

Five yearsContinued from page 1

LeAnn said she shared Jack’s sentiments.

“That wasn’t part of our thing — blaming or being mad at somebody for let-ting that happen,” she said.

Coping with tragedyThe Hammontree family

received hundreds of cards, plants and other condolenc-es after Blake’s death.

Jack said they received about $10,000 and put the money into a scholarship fund. Each year they give an OU-bound Medford High School graduate a $1,000 scholarship.

“Our criteria’s pretty loosey goosey, but we’re going to give it to ... kind of the underachievers we know can make it,” Jack said.

“The ones like him, not the top, they’re going to get their scholarships. Not the low and the poor because they’re going to get their help, too, but those in the middle like we were.”

LeAnn said giving the scholarship has helped her deal with the loss of her son. But that loss is still too

difficult to talk about. “It feels good to do it,

but I don’t talk about it,” she said.

Jack wrote a book he gave to LeAnn for Christmas that he calls “The Blakester,” his nickname for Blake.

“That helped a lot,” he said. “It’s kind of like ther-apy. Other than that, the football season’s cool for me. It’s hard, but it’s cool.”

Jack said he still feels the closest to Blake when he attends OU football games. LeAnn just tries to get through each day, she said.

“When you ask about what we’ve done the past five years, it’s more a matter of survival,” she said. “Ask your mothers if they can imagine just suddenly you not being here.

“I have thought I would have to move away to start over, and that is why I think we ended up in Medford those few years before he had to leave, so I could start over,” she said.

LeAnn said she still does not like going back to Enid and rarely does.

“I can’t do it,” she said. “I think I was sent to Medford for a way to help me sur-vive.

RememberContinued from page 1

Jack Hammontree helps his son, Blake, tie a necktie. PHOTO SUBMITTED

Years of Consequence From left: Blake Adam Hammontree; Norman police offi-cials leave the Sigma Chi house the morn-ing Hammontree was found; OU President David Boren announces the close of Sigma Chi within hours of police finding Hammontree’s body.

ARCHIVE PHOTOS

GRAPHIC BY JAMIE HUGHES

“What’s disconcerting to me is how little impact (Hammontree’s death) seems to have.”

—OU PRESIDENT DAVID BOREN, NOV. 2004

Jan. 18, 2005: First offi cial day

of new alcohol policy at OU.

Dec. 6, 2004: The OU Board of

Regents approves Boren’s Student

Alcohol Policy.

Nov. 18, 2004: The last meeting of

the Presidential Advisory Committee

on the Problem of Underage Drinking

is hosted.

Oct. 3, 2004: A memorial for Blake

Hammontree is held on the lawn of

the Phi Gamma Delta house.

Sept. 30, 2004: Blake Hammon-

tree is found dead in the Sigma Chi

fraternity house.

Oct. 4, 2004: Boren announces

the creation of a 20-person alcohol

advisory committee.

Nov. 15, 2004: Four witnesses to

Blake Hammontree’s death testify

before a grand jury.

Dec. 2, 2004: Boren presents a

15-point plan to combat alcohol abuse

at OU, which included a three-strike

policy.

Oct. 5, 2004: A member of Sigma

Chi is arrested and charged with a

felony count of furnishing alcohol to

a minor.

Sept. 30, 2004: OU President David

Boren suspends all Sigma Chi social

activities and announces the house

will be closed

CAITLIN HARRISONDaily Staff Writer

The president of Sigma Chi has said his fraternity is trying to move forward and get past several years of trials.

Sigma Chi now seems like any other fra-ternity on campus. It has a strong brother-hood, a house and philanthropies.

But that was not the case just a few years ago.

Sigma Chi was suspended from campus in fall 2004 after a freshman pledge, Blake Adam Hammontree, was found dead in the fraternity’s house, the result of alcohol poi-soning during a house party.

“Even though (Hammontree’s death) was five years ago, it seems like every new year people still hear and know about it,” said Sean McLaughlin, Sigma Chi president. “And we’re trying to change that perception.”

The fraternity was recolonized at OU in fall 2007. Such a quick return is almost unheard of for suspended fraternities, said Robert Williams, alumni supervisory committee chairman and former chapter adviser.

An early returnSuspended fraternities are typically

off campus for a minimum of four years, Williams said.

OU approved Sigma Chi’s return to cam-pus about a year ahead of what was originally planned, OU President David Boren said in an interview last week.

Sigma Chi’s national organization’s in-volvement and cooperation with OU aided in allowing the fraternity to return so soon, Boren said.

“But had their nationals not gotten that involved, had their nationals not worked in close partnership with us, and if they had de-clined to do a person by person, every single individual background check and interview, we would not have let them back on,” Boren said.

Each student who was a member of the fraternity at the time of Hammontree’s death was carefully evaluated, and the national organization did a chapter review that was conducted in partnership with alumni.

Only 13 members were involved with Sigma Chi’s recolonization. The members, McLaughlin said, pledged in 2004, were ini-tiated in 2006 at Oklahoma State University and remained close during the fraternity’s three years away from OU.

“Once they’re back, recolonized, in es-sence, we regard them as having made a fresh start,” Boren said. “So they’ll be treated like everyone else.”

‘Darn sure’ some stayed awayBoren said the major perpetrators in

Hammontree’s death were not involved in the recolonization.

“They weren’t back as members of that fraternity,” Boren said. “And some of them kind of grouped together in some of the apartments and so on around town, and some of the bad behavior continued.

“We made darn sure that those people were not part of the recolonization.”

To return to campus, the university re-quired that Sigma Chi present a business plan for chapter operations and activities, as well as form an alumni supervisory com-mittee composed of fraternity alumni who would oversee the chapter’s activities. The committee is still in place, Williams said.

Boren said much thought went into whether the university should allow Sigma Chi back on campus.

“We consulted with the Interfraternity Council, too, because, in many ways, some

of the other fraternities, and I can see this, felt like, ‘Well, we’re under stricter rules today because they were irresponsible,’” Boren said.

The effect of timeThe fraternity also returned on the con-

dition of a one-strike policy, as opposed to the three strikes allowed for other greek organizations.

“One infraction can cost us the charter forever,” Williams said. “I’m very pleased to report that we have not had that strike. Young men like Sean have done an admi-rable job representing the values of Sigma Chi.”

McLaughlin, who pledged during Sigma Chi’s first semester back, said he and his pledge class learned a great deal from the 13 members who helped recolonize.

“Because we were trained and taught by the guys who came back, those 13 guys, we try to pass that along, that what we have is very special and we can lose it very quickly,” McLaughlin said.

The suspension has not affected the fra-ternity’s rush or kept potential new members from pledging, McLaughlin said.

“Pretty much everyone we wanted, we got them,” he said. “During recruitment, we have so much to offer.”

Tim Kuykendall, Cleveland County dis-trict attorney at the time of Hammontree’s death, said it has been just long enough that many OU students are not aware of what happened in 2004.

“The students that were there at the time have graduated and moved on, and new

students coming in have never heard of Blake Hammontree,” Kuykendall said. “I think it had an impact at the time. I think it has less of an impact now because students have forgotten that drinking can lead to death.”

Alcohol precautionsSigma Chi takes as much precaution as

possible in terms of underage drinking, McLaughlin said.

“We really try very hard,” he said. “The culture of the campus currently can get out-of-hand sometimes, and especially during things like recruitment and game days.”

“But we really make a conscious effort to try to keep that stuff away from the house, and if we do have things off campus or with third-party vendors, they are very well-regu-lated and monitored, because we do under-stand that we are still under a microscope of criticism.”

Although OU has instituted a stricter alco-hol policy since 2004, it is not enough to cur-tail underage drinking, said Michael Dunn, executive director of Sigma Chi International fraternity.

“It’s certainly an appropriate measure to take, but we don’t live in a bubble,” Dunn said. “I don’t think a fail-safe method has been invented yet. Does it take a tragedy like Blake’s to make us wake up and realize what’s going on here?”

Dunn said Sigma’s alcohol education pro-gram is also a step in the right direction, but that ultimately individuals must make their own decisions. He said it is unlikely there will ever be a permanent solution to the problem.

“For us, we know it’s a goal that may never be accomplished because as we get these young people through the underage part, there’s more underage people that are going to come through behind them,” Dunn said. “All we can do is be vigilant with the educa-tion process.”

Williams said if nothing else, the men of Sigma Chi learned something valuable from Hammontree’s death.

“We have learned,” he said. We have taken that and turned it into something positive. I think we have a fine group of quality young men that gained from that tragedy, that are more mature [and] more respectful of society.”

ARCHIVE PHOTOS

Above: The body of Blake Adam Hammontree is taken from the Sigma Chi fraternity house in September 2004. Right: Randall Smith, sophomore Sigma Chi member, and his attorney outside a courtroom in November 2004. Bottom right: Members of Sigma Chi sit outside the house as the state medical examiner arrives.

Special Section WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2009 3

Recolonized Sigma Chi tries to move forward

Years of Consequence Left: Three subpoenaed OU students walk through the halls of the Oklahoma County Court House in November 2004 on their way to testify before a grand jury in the Blake Hammontree case.

Right: Dean Spears, then UOSA president, and Norman Police Chief Phil Cotten, far right, listen to Rennie Cook, center, director of the Center for Student Life, speak during a panel discussion on alcohol in Dale Hall in November 2004.

ARCHIVE PHOTOS

‘We do understand that we are still under a microscope of criticism.’

Sean McLaughlin, Sigma Chi president

GRAPHIC BY JAMIE HUGHES/THE DAILY

May 18, 2007: Boren announces

Sigma Chi will be reinstated and will

participate in fall rush.

March 27, 2006: Boren announces

Sigma Chi can return to campus as

early as the spring of 2007.

March 2, 2005: Four OU students

are charged with felony counts of fur-

nishing alcohol to a minor in relation

to Blake Hammontree’s death.

Nov. 9, 2005: Triangle Fraternity

refuses to sign an agreement to comply

with the new alcohol policy and is sus-

pended from the Interfraternity Council.

Aug. 30, 2007: Boren tells The

Daily third-party vendors can sell

alcohol at greek houses on game

days on a trial basis.

Sept. 30, 2005: The fi rst

National Hazing Prevention Week is

recognized at OU.

Dec. 6, 2005: The OU Board of

Regents approves three amendments

to the alcohol policy.

Dec. 5, 2006: The OU Board

of Regents approves a strike

deferment policy.

April 20, 2005: Sigma Alpha Epsilon

is the fi rst fraternity at OU to receive a

strike under the new alcohol policy.

CHARLES WARDAssistant Managing Editor

The number of OU students charged with drunken driving is higher than it has ever been since OU instituted its “three strikes” policy, according to information OU spokes-man Jay Doyle provided.

In 2008, OU received 261 reports from law-enforcement agencies about OU students charged with driving under the influence, 53 more reports than OU received in any of the previous three years of the three-strikes pol-icy, and 96 more than OU received in 2005, the first year of the policy.

OU President David Boren said two factors led to this increase: increased enforcement of drunken driving laws both by OUPD and Norman police, and students’ fading memo-ries about the reasons OU implemented the policy.

OU’s three-strikes policy took effect in January 2005, three months after the alcohol-related death of Blake Hammontree

“I feel like we have the right to be strict, and should be strict [about DUI enforcement], especially when we’re providing [help], like the SafeRide alternative,” Boren said.

Norman hasn’t instituted any specific crackdowns on drunken driving since Hammontree’s death or since OU imple-mented its alcohol policy, but has increased its enforcement of drunken driving laws gen-erally over many years, said Norman Police Department Capt. Leonard Judy.

He also attributed the higher number of OU student DUI arrests to the passage of time after Hammontree’s death.

“You could probably contact 100 students at random ... and say, ‘Have you ever heard of Blake Hammontree?’ And I would imag-ine a majority of them [would] say ‘Who?’” he said.

BY THE NUMBERS

A greater spike was seen in the number of 17-20-year-olds arrested for all drunken driving offenses by OUPD, including DUI, driving while intoxicated and actual physical control. In 2008, 164 such arrests were made, 100 more than were made in 2005, according to information obtained in an open-records request.

OU’s alcohol-related discipline charges are also down from where they were when the three-strikes policy came into being, ac-cording to information Doyle provided.

The first full year, 2005 through 2006, 820 students faced charges under the three-strikes policy. In 2008 through 2009, that number dropped to 695.

However, the low point under the policy, 601 cases, came in 2006 through 2007, the policy’s second full year.

More of the OU’s first-time alcohol cases are being handled with deferred first strikes, 288 in 2008 through 2009, up from 240 the previous year.

A student is eligible to defer a first strike for non-DUI offenses, allowing the strike to disappear completely from the student’s

record if he or she has no additional alcohol-related offenses within a year of receiving the deferred strike and otherwise completes the conditions of the strike, such as mandatory education or counseling.

“This ... is not a scientific survey, but just from my experience, when students get that first deferred strike or warning, so to speak, or they get a first strike, parents start to get involved. Friends and parents start to get in-volved,” Boren said. “I think you also have a lot of students who just say, ‘Oh, these are big risks for me, and I don’t want this to happen, and I don’t want this to be in my records, if it’s a strike that’s not deferred.’”

Second strikes are up some, with 25 last chances being given in 2008 through 2009. OU issued 12 second strikes in 2005 through 2006 and 13 in 2006 through 2007, with 30 being the high water mark in 2007 through 2008.

Only three students have taken third strikes, or automatic one-semester suspen-sions, since the program started in 2005, but two of those third strikes came last year.

“When you get to the second strike, we’ve been very fortunate, we’ve had almost com-plete parental involvement and family in-volvement, or a family friend or an older friend of the student get involved,” Boren said.

A final statistic shows the number of stu-dents using OU’s SafeRide system is increas-ing year after year. Ridership is up from 3,425 in the 2004 through 2005 fiscal year (July-June), the first year of the program, to 9,983 in 2008 through 2009.

“Those figures are extremely encouraging to me, which makes me feel that the ... change in the culture is still strong, even though the DUI figures have been going up,” Boren said.

OU converted SafeRide from a shuttle-bus system augmented by taxi vouchers that served only a limited area near campus, to a system that allows students to call taxis to take them anywhere within Norman’s city limits on Thursday, Friday or Saturday nights, according to both Boren and the SafeRide Web site.

“We used to have what we called SafeRide, but it was a little bus that went around mainly the Campus Corner area,” Boren said. “It was not all over the city. It was not really very ac-cessible, because you had to stand on a street corner, and wait for it to come.”

The use of SafeRide is anonymous and OU administrators cannot bring charges under the three strikes policy for the use of SafeRide, Boren said.

A CHANGE IN THE CULTURE

Boren said Hammontree’s death was one of the most difficult things he’s gone through in his nearly 15 years as president.

“I vowed to myself that’s something I never want to do again,” he said. “It was so pain-ful, obviously for his parents, for his sister. I spent a great deal of time with them during the aftermath of his death. I wanted to make sure it never happened again. I think that’s the best way we can pay tribute to him, honor

his memory is to try to make sure that no life of an OU student is lost in the future through alcohol poisoning.”

The three-strikes policy is just one mea-sure OU took to address alcohol issues. Others included mandatory Web-based alcohol education for incoming students under the age of 22, the addition of an alco-hol counselor to Goddard Health Center’s staff, alcohol education for students taking a first strike and alcohol counseling for stu-dents taking a second.

“The University of Oklahoma can’t pre-vent students from drinking,” said Tim Kuykendall, who served as Cleveland County District Attorney at the time of Hammontree’s death. “Neither can local law enforcement. Now, they can deal with it as increased en-forcement, but there you’re dealing with it on the back end. I think it’s more important to deal with it on the front end, through educa-tion programs. And that’s something I know the university is doing.”

Kuykendall is also a former chapter advis-er for Phi Delta Theta fraternity at OU.

The number one goal of the new policy, though, was to eliminate binge drinking, Boren said. To that end, OU required resi-dence halls and OU-recognized greek hous-es to be alcohol-free.

This primarily affected fraternities, be-cause sororities were already alcohol-free and students in residence were already sub-ject to inspection, Boren said.

Boren said OU took the step to eliminate hall parties, parties that took place behind the closed and locked doors of primarily fra-ternity houses, and binge drinking, which the Centers for Disease Control’s Web site states typically happens when men consume five or more drinks in two hours, or women who consume four or more drinks in the same time frame.

“What we’ve found is that people who are in public, or in regulated situations, don’t tend to binge drink,” he said. “Most people don’t really want to be carried out of a public restaurant or public place. They don’t want the public embarrassment.”

Boren said the alcohol-free house policy is enforced by inspections. However, fraternity houses receive a phone call 15-60 minutes prior to the inspection, Boren said.

“Believe me, having seen photographs and having heard detailed accounts of what the Sigma Chi house looked like that night ... there was no way with 15 minutes notice or an hour’s notice, that that house, what hap-pened there, could have been cleaned up and not been obvious to any inspector that stepped in,” Boren said.

The announcements prior to inspection, though, are troubling to Kuykendall.

“When they do things like that, it kind of defeats the purpose of random checks, when you call first and say you’re coming,” he said. “If the policy is to prevent the hall parties, then it’s working. If the policy is to keep alco-hol out of the individual rooms, it’s not. Or to keep kegs out of the hallway or kegs out of the foyer, it’s not. Because in 30 minutes you can certainly haul the keg in the kitchen, or back room, or closet, or any individual room and the ... checks do not extend into going into those individual rooms.”

Boren said he expects individual room doors to be “cracked” when inspectors ar-rive, but that he said OU inspectors would not go “to the extreme of going in and search-ing through everyone’s sock drawers in their rooms and everything.”

Greek houses agreed to the inspection policy, since OU does not own most of the fraternity houses, Boren said. That prevented OU from imposing any search policy it chose to on fraternities. On the other hand, he said, OU would not recognize greek organizations that did not agree to being searched, which would prevent those houses from partici-pating in rush, intramurals and the like. Additionally, OU’s Panhellenic sororities stated they would not socialize with houses that did not agree to the new policies, he said.

“Our goal is not to entrap people,” he said. “Our goal is to stop dangerous behavior. So, we’ll try to strike a balance with you.”

That balance may be tipping more toward increased inspections at fraternity houses and residence halls.

“I think that it’s time for us to make sure that we have enough inspections and in-crease the frequency of them and maybe the thoroughness of them, to send a strong message again,” Boren said. “Remember, this policy’s here. Remember, we can be

there inspecting at any time. And we will be. Early hours of the morning, and unexpected times, and so on. I think you’ll see inspec-tions stepped up.”

Opinions are split as to whether these changes have made a difference in OU’s al-cohol culture.

“I think it has,” Boren said. “I think it needs some reinforcing again.”

Kuykendall said Hammontree’s death did cause a change in how OU, as an institution, views alcohol abuse and misuse.

“I think it caused OU to take a harsher look at people and groups that violate the drinking policy,” he said. “I think it caused the University of Oklahoma to make some changes in their policy. I think it woke up stu-dents to the problems of excessive drinking.”

However, he also said even with that awareness, the problem of binge drinking is growing, not shrinking.

“I think binge drinking among students is out of control,” he said. “They don’t realize the dangers of drinking in excess. I think it’s a bigger problem than it’s ever been.”

And Judy said he thinks the issues of un-derage and binge drinking are perennial problems, ones that won’t disappear any-time soon.

“Students who come to the university in Norman, just as they do nationwide, fre-quently are on their own and left to their own devices and free of parental supervision for the first time in their lives,” he said. “In a lot of cases, they feel it appropriate for them to kind of spread their wings and do some things that they’ve heard about and that their peers are doing and they see going on.”

Even Boren said completely eliminating alcohol issues on campus isn’t an achiev-able goal.

“Will we ever achieve perfection? No.” he said. “I understand there’s no way that the university’s seeing eyes can be on every-thing 24 hours a day, and [on] every bit of behavior.”

Signs and symptoms of alcohol poisoning:• Unconsciousness• Slow or irregular breathing• Strong odor of alcohol• Cold, clammy, pale or bluish skin• Vomiting while “sleeping” or passed out

Campus resources:OUPD: 911 or 325-1717OU Health Services, Health Promotion: 325-4611 ext. 41777OU Counseling and Testing Services: 325-2911Anonymous Hazing and Alcohol Hotline: 325-5000SafeRide: 325-RIDESafeWalk: 325-WALK

SafeRide:A free taxi service for students with an OU ID available anywhere within Norman.Names and ID numbers are not recorded. The service is available Thursday to Saturday from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m.

Facts about alcohol:• The liver removes alcohol at a constant rate of approximately one standard drink per hour• A standard drink is classified as a 12 oz. beer, a 5 oz. wine or 1 shot of liquor• 1 in 5 OU students choose not to drink

Preventative measures to take while drinking:• Eat before and/or during the evening• Count the number of drinks while consum-ing them• Pace drinking to one or fewer drinks per hour• Avoid drinking games• Decide not to drink at a party

Sexual activity and alcohol:• 90 percent of all campus rapes, including acquaintance rape, are alcohol-related.• 60 percent of college women infected with STDs were infected while under the infl uence of alcohol.• Students are more likely to have unprotected sex while intoxicated.• Alcohol is the most commonly used drug to assist in sexual assault.

OU’s ideas and policies:• OU will not issue a strike if you act to get help for a medical emergency.• Each year an estimated 1,700 college stu-dents die in alcohol related deaths.

What is binge drinking?• A high-risk activity that results in drinking alcohol that brings the BAC to .08 percent or above.• For a typical adult, the pattern corresponds to consuming fi ve or more drinks for a male, or four or more drinks for a female in about two hours.

Of college students surveyed by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism:

• 25 percent reported academic conse-quences because of their drinking• 1,700 students die every year from alcohol-related injuries• 599,000 were unintentionally injured during drinking• 600,000 plus were assaulted as a result of the consumption of alcohol• 97,000 cases of sexual assault or date rape were reported• 400,000 had unprotected sex while under the infl uence of alcohol• 150,000 plus developed alcohol related health problems• 11 percent reported that they damaged property while under the infl uence of alcohol• 5 percent reported being involved with police or campus security due to alcohol related violations

ALCOHOL FACTS AND RESOURCES

Special Section4 WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2009

JEREMY DICKIE/THE DAILY

OU President David Boren answers questions during an interview regarding alcohol on campus Sept. 21 in his office. Boren has actively taken measures to curb alcohol-related incidents.

Boren reflects on implementation of alcohol policy

0

50

100

150

200

250

300Student DUI Violations

2005 2006 2007 2008source: Jay Doyle, University Spokesperson

165

124

208

261

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

778

563

80 3

Number of strikes since 2005

DeferredStrike One

Strike One Strike Two Strike Three

source: Jay Doyle, University Spokesperson