A Xenia House Pledge was recently hospitalized after partaking in an event mandatory to membership for the Xenia house. The pledge was forced to drink 2 Liters of non-alcoholic beverage in an hour after three hours of water pong and become over-hydrated. The administration has responded with a public statement reprimanding the House, their members, and their association with the College. A decree to suspend the Xenia house and its members is pending in the students’ ethics committee.
A Xenia House member who wishes to remain unknown complained “It’s not our fault if a Pledge has a lower tolerance for large amounts of non-alcoholic beverage. Everyone has difference tolerance levels. It really shouldn’t be a problem considering we’re serving non-alcoholic drinks.”
In fact, the consumption of nonalcoholic drinks is a largely misunderstood danger in colleges across the nation. As quoted in the March 2010 of the issue Real Science “more marathon runners die each year from over-hydration than dehydration.” “Over-hydration from consuming too much water is almost more dangerous than overconsumption of alcohol” says Dr. Walsh of the Parton Health Center, “This is a health concern throughout colleges across the nation because students really don’t understand the dangers of consuming too much water in a short period of time.”
Following Dartmouth’s move to ban water pong from its campus a week ago, President Liebowitz released a statement to the press stating that Middlebury would take the lead among the NESCAC schools in the movement against water pong and over-hydration.