"Tufts students reprimanded over behavior at Boston hotel" by Todd Feathers | Globe Correspondent, February 19, 2013
In a scathing letter to the Tufts University community, Bruce Reitman, dean of student affairs, reprimanded students who were hospitalized, threw up, and urinated in the lobby of the Westin Copley Place Boston Hotel during the annual Winter Bash....
In the letter, Reitman said the blame should fall not only on the students who were hospitalized, but also on their friends who allowed them to drink too much.
“I am referring also to the myriad students who threw up all over the place and everyone who thought it was OK for the hotel staff to clean up the mess,” Reitman wrote. “And I’m referring to the male student and the female student who decided that urinating in the middle of the lobby was OK.”
In his public letter, Reitman said that students and staff who plan future school events will seek to “address the evidently widespread belief that Winter Bash is a time to get outrageously drunk and go to a classy Boston hotel.”
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"Hotel cited for Tufts group party; Police accuse Westin Copley" by Travis Andersen | Globe Staff, February 20, 2013
Police have cited the Westin Copley Place Boston Hotel for violations stemming from a Tufts University function held at the hotel earlier this month in which some students drank excessively, urinated in the lobby, and were sent to area hospitals for treatment.
Boston police said in a statement Wednesday that hotel security refused to stop the party, which the school calls its annual Winter Bash, shortly after midnight Feb. 2 after officers “observed numerous individuals leaving the third floor ballroom, many of whom appeared extremely intoxicated due to alcohol consumption.”
Police added, “When officers asked security outside the ballroom to shut the party down, [hotel] security replied ‘No, they have 10 minutes left!’ Officers observed several people later identified as Tufts University students passed out and throwing up in different rooms of the hotel.”
The hotel, however, said Wednesday that staff acted appropriately, according to a statement released by a public relations agency on behalf of the Westin.
“The incident that took place at the hotel at a Tufts University function on Feb. 1 was effectively addressed on site by hotel staff and university officials,” the statement said. “No permanent damage was done to the hotel.”
A spokeswoman declined to comment further.
Police said the hotel was cited for “intoxicated patrons needing medical attention, underaged drinking, hotel security uncooperative, outside liquor brought onto license premise establishment, and egress issues addressed with management.”
Hotel representatives will appear before licensing officials at a later date for a hearing on the matter. Possible sanctions include a written warning or temporary license suspension.
A day before the police announcement, a Tufts newspaper published a letter from Bruce Reitman, dean of student affairs, upbraiding students for their conduct at the function....
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