MUN student upset after eviction from residence for role in binge drinking challenge

A Memorial University student says she was unfairly evicted from residence for her role in an on-campus party that sent four minors to the hospital with symptoms of alcohol poisoning.

"After the party, it was nerve wracking. It was a big event, and I think they [MUN housing officials] really felt that they needed one person to blame," said second year student Keely Noiles.

The party in question was the "26 to Freedom" challenge on Oct. 17, an event planned through a private Facebook group, with participating studens paired off together in teams.

Each pair had a '26er'— a 750-millilitre bottle of liquor— taped to their hands, with the goal to finish all the alcohol.

The night ended with four underage students rushed to hospital.

Noiles was evicted on Oct. 19 and forced to move off-campus.

Noiles' role

Prior to the party, Noiles posted to the Facebook event, listing who would be paired with who.

"Everyone just wanted to have it in one central place where they could go and look," said Noiles.

Although around 50 people attended the event, Noiles said residence officials quickly looked for a scapegoat to pin the event on.

A screenshot of Noiles' offending Facebook post, taken before the party, was shared with housing officials.

"A lot of people made posts about this party, I didn't think that it could all come back to me as the sole organizer," said Noiles.

Naming names

Noiles believes she should have been offered a second chance.

But instead, she said residence officials urged her to name other people involved in the event, or face the full brunt of responsibility for the incident.

"I didn't feel like names needed to be brought forward, because there was no single name," said Noiles.

"It didn't make sense to put other people in the stressful situation that I've been in for this past month."

Housing responds

Bruce Belbin, director of student residences at Memorial, said Noiles' eviction was due to a failure to co-operate.

"We don't start out looking for a scapegoat or a punitive approach, we look for an opportunity to live and learn," said Belbin.

Four students seriously ill... that's a serious event for us.- Bruce Belbin

But because Noiles failed to give up other names for the incident, Belbin said residence officials had no choice but to introduce punitive measures, due to the severe nature of the event.

"Four students seriously ill, two by any medical definition came close to death, that's a serious event for us," said Belbin.

"I would not rather sit down and talk to a parent about the death of a student, as opposed to sit down and talk to a parent about why we kicked their child out of residence," he said. 

Had she co-operated with residence officials, Belbin said the result may have been different, with MUN Housing looking to develop a comprehensive program for alcohol awareness for the organizers, and residence, involved.

"At the end of the day that would have been a much more progressive approach, and we would have stuck to that," said Belbin.

Support for Noiles

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During the investigation, Noiles sought out support and aid from the Memorial University Students' Union (MUNSU).

MUNSU Executive Director of Advocacy, Leah Robertson, sat in with Noiles in meetings with residence officials, and said Noiles was not treated fairly throughout the process. 

"I felt that housing staff were abusive and harassed students," said Robertson.

"They acted with impunity, and they ignored what the students were saying in these meetings." 

Robertson added it was not an environment conducive to reaching a real solution.

"Housing staff swore at students, they made statements against them, they threatened them with legal action or eviction or expulsion, on no grounds to do this when they didn't have any facts at the time," she said.

Robertson believes that alcohol education and restorative justice was the proper way to address the situation.

Uncertain future

After her eviction, Noiles moved in with friends off campus.

"I'm currently living on someone's couch, in their laundry room. And I'm concerned with how I'm going to keep up with my academics this semester," said Noiles.

As for a permanent solution, Noiles would like to see residence officials move to change how the situation was handled.

"Policies at MUN need to be reviewed and reformed, because obviously they're just not doing a good enough job of educating students when it comes to alcohol related incidents," said Noiles.