For some students, the only train they will ever travel on is the blackout train. Yes, the blackout train, the train that hits you with a bang, sometimes literally, after you have drunk one or two too many mixed drinks. It's a place where nightmares come true, but memories are nonexistent. If you take a ride on this train, you won't even know where you have traveled until your friends tell you the next day or you wake up with another unidentified passenger.
When compiling a travel log of blackout events from Dartmouth students, one thing was clear: They all wish to be anonymous, and judging by these stories, I would too.
For many, the blackout experience often involves myriad hook up disasters. "One time when I was blacked out, I hooked up with an ex," a sophomore girl said. "Apparently I attacked him and started biting his face." A sophomore male experienced a similar hook-up surprise. "I went home with a girl," he said. "The next morning I woke up and had all these scratches and bruises on me and have no idea how they got there."
Harry Kinne, head of Dartmouth Safety and Security and college proctor, highlighted his concern over the issue of blacking out. "We are concerned about that," Kinne said. "If someone did have an experience where they can't remember anything they should probably go to Dick's House. There could be something more than alcohol involved."
Molly Bondurant, a registered nurse who works on the night shift at Dick's House, agreed. "I think it is important for students to know what they are drinking," Boundrant said. "Sometimes we see behavior that doesn't seem to be related only to alcohol."
Dick's House, for their part, wishes students to know that they are completely separate from College discipline. "We don't want to have anything to do with the police," Charlene Bradley, Nursing Director at Dick's House, said. "The health center is about dealing with medical care. Safety is the biggest thing here."
According to Bradley, a common trend in blacked out students is urination. She sees this behavior frequently at the inpatient clinic. "It's not uncommon for students to pull open and urinate in drawers or to urinate on a bed next to them even if it is occupied," Bradley said. "One time, a student walked into our utility room and peed into the wastebasket. When I confronted him in the morning about it, he had no recollection of it whatsoever."
Another sophomore male student described his experience with blacked out urination. "One night my friend came home and started peeing all over my bed. He wouldn't stop. He didn't remember it in the morning and neither did I at first. I jumped into bed and it was all wet."
Vomiting is another common bodily function that occurs on the blackout train. "Once, I was drinking in someone's room and then out of the blue I started crying and ran out of the room," a female member of the Class of 2006 said. "I ran all the way home. Afterwards my friends came to my room to find me pretty much passed out. By this point, they were wasted and began vomiting. In response, I vomited as well. I woke up to a room full of my passed out friends and vomit everywhere, but had no idea how this happened."
Other blackout goings on take place when students get the munchies. "Once when I was blacked out, I walked to retrieve my EBA's, but got lost along the way," a senior female said. "After wandering around for a good hour, as pieced together by my roommate, I apparently called her to tell her I was lost. I told her I was in the Butterfield parking lot, which she quickly realized was incorrect. She eventually found me in the Mass Row parking lot, with only one shoe. I never found my other shoe, nor did I get my EBA's."
One sophomore male had an unfortunate experience with chicken nuggets. "One night, after playing pong, I walked to an off-campus house. Apparently I brought chicken nuggets and barbecue sauce with me," the student said. "I learned the next day that I had thrown the barbecue sauce at people and had also thrown a trash can at a large picture frame and broke the picture."
According to Bradley, there is no one blood alcohol content that determines blacking out. The highest BAC level Bradley has ever seen at Dartmouth was a 0.47. "That was someone who was walking, talking and functioning quite normally," Bradley said. "He was an alcoholic and he was used to it. Many people would be dead at this level."
Many blackout stories involve run-ins with the authorities "One of my friends gave a Safety and Security officer a Dartmouth card of another student while blacked out and picked up," a senior female said. "This is funny because the card she handed the officer was the card of a black female student and she herself is white."
One female in the Class of 2006 managed to narrowly avoid H-Po. "While leaving a frat, I ran into a bunch of people from my floor and told them that I knew a shortcut to Ripley," said the student. "Hollering, 'This way! This way!' I ran towards the Choates, which happened to be right towards H-Po. I don't remember this at all."
Some blacked out students injure themselves and wake up with a UDI -- unidentified drunken injury. Several students later discovered they injured themselves by falling off of something. A sophomore male said, "My roommates saw me fall straight off of the top bunk in the middle of the night. I woke up on the ground, but I have no memory of falling or hitting the ground."
One student broke several bones from a fall. "During Green Key my friend fell off a high deck of a house," a junior male said. "He got up, shook himself off and continued playing pong. He had no memory of falling off the deck, but later found that he had broken some ribs."
Despite the funny stories that come from blacking out, the consequences can be extremely dangerous. "We've had to put a student on a ventilator," Bradley said. "Without the ventilator, the student would have probably died."
While blacking out often has dangerous consequences, it is at present a main fixture in Dartmouth's frat basement high society. For Bradley, other Dick's House nurses and Safety and Security, dealing with blacked out students adds intensity and stress to the weekend. "Every weekend has the potential to be a big weekend," Bradley said.
