Halloween Safety

There are many events you can attend this holiday that do not involve alcohol use. 

Check out the calendar of events below, these events are hosted by Loyola's student run Department of Programming (DOP) and other campus organizations:

10/23: DOP Night of the Living Decor Craft Decorating, Damen Den, 6-8pm

10/24: Japanese Cultural Club Mask Painting, IES 124, 6:30-8:30pm

10/24, 10/29, & 10/31: Tours of the Crypts, Madonna della Strada Chapel, 8pm

10/25: DOP & BCC Friday Night Flick: A Quiet Place Day One, Damen Cinema, 7-9pm

10/29: Christian Life Community Halloween Extravaganza, McCormick Lounge, 6-8pm

10/29: Sorority and Fraternity life Ambassadors Pumpkin Painting, IES 123, 6-8pm

10/30: Loyola Halloween Virtual Trivia, via Zoom, 12-1pm

10/30: Wellness Wolfpack Halloween Harm Reduction Event, Damen Den, 5:30-8:30pm 

10/31: Loyola Archives and Special Collections Halloween Open House, 9am-4pm

10/31: DOP Boo Bash, Damen MPR, 6-10pm

11/1: All Saints Day Mass, Madonna della Strada Chapel, 1pm

11/1: Health Sciences Campus Ministry Solemnity of All Saints Mass, Cuneo 250, 12:15pm

11/1: Arrupe College Day of the Dead Celebration, Maguire Hall, 1pm

11/1: DOP Dia de Los Muertos, Damen MPR, 6:30-10pm

For info on locations and more, follow Department of Programming - LUCommunity (campuslabs.com). They will continue to update their page closer to Halloween. All students welcome! 

If you choose to host a Halloween party this year, keep in mind that if there is high risk alcohol use there, there is a higher chance that a guest or yourself could become ill, have an accident, or there could be an argument or altercation. Alcohol use impairs judgment and can cause blackouts, and this is particularly likely in party situations when people are pre-gaming or playing drinking games. If you host a party, have food and water on hand and keep it to a smaller group of close friends if possible. If you are hosting any type of gathering at an off-campus residence, you cannot provide alcohol to people under the age of 21, or you could face repercussions through the city or Loyola. If you are asked by Campus Safety or Chicago police to end a party due to noise or other complaints, you must end the party immediately and ask guests to leave. If you live in an apartment complex, be respectful of neighbors and the rules of the complex in terms of capacity and noise.

Please also remember that we are seeing an increase in COVD-19 cases and other illnesses. Encourage guests to take precautions like not playing games where people may share drinks and asking friends to stay home if they are not feeling well. Also, please remember that Loyola is situated in a residential area with many families. Please be respectful of our campus and off-campus community, and follow the LUC community standards and city and state laws.

Remember Loyola's Good Neighbor policy below:

Loyola enjoys a positive, mutually supportive relationship with its neighboring local residential and business communities in Rogers Park, Edgewater, Maywood, Woodstock, and abroad. To sustain those relationships into the future, Loyola students must conduct themselves as mature and responsible neighbors when off-campus. Students are responsible for upholding all federal, state, and city laws and ordinances wherever they reside, travel, or socialize, especially those relating to noise, traffic, littering, parking, zoning, and alcohol and drug use.

There are many ways to celebrate Halloween that do not involve alcohol. If you do choose to drink alcohol, please follow these important tips to minimize risk:

• Eat food (with fat/protein) before and during the festivities

• Alternate non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages

• Avoid hard liquor and shots

• Pace your drinking to 1 drink or less per hour

• Keep track of your drink and what you are drinking; if a stranger hands you a drink, decline!

• If you don't know what is in a drink (like jungle juice), choose something else

• Set a drink limit and stick to it

• Designate a trusted friend to help you stick to your drink limit

• Come up with a plan with friends on how to safely get to and from your destination 
• Remember Loyola’s Good Samaritan policy and seek help for your friends and yourself. (3 steps: Get help, stay with your friend, and follow up)

Please ask for help if you are in a situation where you are worried about the health and safety of yourself or others. 

If you are on-campus, and there is a safety or alcohol emergency, please call Campus Safety at 773-508-6039 and alert your RD if you live in a residence hall. If you need advocacy services, please call the Sexual Assault Advocacy line at 773-494-3810.

We recognize that some students may choose to go out to bars or gatherings in the city to celebrate. If you need assistance for yourself or a friend and you are off-campus, please call 911 or find the nearest police officer, and mention that you are a LUC student. Your health and safety is of the utmost importance to LUC. 

Also, Halloween is a time of fun and dressing up in costumes, but when alcohol is involved, that can sometimes lead to people becoming impaired and using hate speech or using words or actions that make other people feel uncomfortable or unsafe. We also want to remind students to be careful about their costume selection, and not to select anything that could be perceived as offensive or appropriation by a cultural group or by any student in the LUC community. Please call Campus Safety if you are in any of these situations, or please follow up with the CURA Network if you would like to report a concern about another student's behavior. 

A standard drink of wine, beer, or hard liquor all contain around the same amount of alcohol. A standard glass of wine is 5 oz and 12% alcohol, a standard beer is 12 oz and 5% alcohol, and a standard 1.5 oz shot is 80 proof, or 40% alcohol. Knowing what one drink is can be very helpful as it can help you not go over your chosen drink limit. (Source: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism).

Measuring and making your own drinks can help ensure that they do not contain more alcohol than you want to consume. Avoid drinking straight out of the bottle or pouring without a shot glass. Also be aware in situations where there is a punch at a party, it is impossible to tell how much alcohol it contains.

The Good Samaritan medical amnesty policy was created to make it easier for students to secure help for their friends during an alcohol or drug related medical emergency. If your friend needs help, please follow the three steps of Good Sam:

1. Call for help

2. Stay with your friend until help arrives

3. Follow up with the conduct office afterwards

If you follow those steps and act in good faith, you and your friend will not be found responsible by Loyola for underage drinking or drug use. However, you need to ask for help for this policy to apply, and it will not apply if the students involved are combative with emergency services or have violated a policy such as vandalizing property.

Please see the full text of the policy in Loyola's community standards here:

At Loyola University Chicago, student safety is paramount. In incidents of crisis or medical emergency, Loyola students are expected to care for themselves and for others in the Loyola community by getting help from appropriate officials even when violations of the Community Standards have occurred. Because the University understands that fear of disciplinary actions may deter requests for emergency assistance, the Good Samaritan and Medical Amnesty Protocol was created to reduce barriers to seek help. The Good Samaritan and Medical Amnesty Protocol may be enacted in crisis situations involving:

• Alcohol use
• Drug use
• Sexual misconduct
• Dating/domestic violence
• Stalking

The University strongly considers the positive impact of taking responsible action when determining the appropriate response to any incident. When the University becomes aware of the above situations only because a fellow student or students took responsible action to secure medical or emergency assistance (subject to the conditions below), no formal University conduct record will be accrued by the reporting student(s) or the student in need of help.

Incidents covered by the Good Samaritan and Medical Amnesty Protocol will still be documented, and the completion of educational and/or health interventions, such as BASICS or other intervention will likely be required. Failure to complete the educational and/or health intervention may result in revocation of the amnesty.

The primary purpose of Loyola's policies is to keep students safe, student safety and wellness is paramount.

As we think about enjoying ourselves responsibly during the Halloween and Fall Holiday season, it is important to remember the Required Personal Safety Practices  put in place by Loyola during the COVID-19 Pandemic. To be a good steward of The Student Promise;  the overall health and safety for ourselves and those around us needs to be salient even in the midst of celebration. During this time, there are some sections of the Loyola Community Standards  to be aware of, including:

• 201 (2)-Alcohol (pg. 8)
• 201 (5) - Disruptive & Disorderly Conduct (pg. 9)
• 201 (6) -Drugs (pg. 8)
• 201 (8) - Failure to Comply (pg.9)
• 201 (15) - Neighborhood Disturbance (pg. 11)

If you are impacted by or witness any misconduct or conflict, please utilize the Student Conduct & Conflict Resolution Reporting Form  through Loyola’s Office of Student Conduct & Conflict Resolution (OSCCR). 

 Remember the Rambler Commitment to Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion. If you are impacted by or witness an act of discrimination of any sort, please file a Report or Formal Complaint here through Loyola’s Office of Equity & Compliance (OEC).

As always, remember the Student Promise—care for yourself, care for others, and care for the community—and have a Happy Halloween.

Also, please remember that if a university official (Campus Safety or Residence Life), determines that a student may have overconsumed alcohol or other drugs and needs assistance, Chicago emergency services will be called. Students will be transported to the hospital to ensure that they are not suffering from alcohol poisoning. This is done to keep students safe and is in line with Chicago laws. If a student is under 21, they typically cannot refuse transport. However, an ambulance bill can carry a large fee, so please keep that in mind if you choose to drink. Please practice low risk drinking if you choose to drink.