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When an 18-year-old college freshman at the University of Colorado at Boulder died of alcohol poisoning after a fraternity party in 2004, a fellow student, Anthony Rossi, founded the Student Emergency Medical Services, a program that aims to provide emergency medical care at student events such as parties and sports competitions.

Now, Rossi is trying to bring the SEMS program to Southern California. He has contacted UCLA as well as USC, which has already decided to take Rossi up on his offer.

At this point, only the University of Colorado and Colorado State University have operational SEMS programs, but Rossi has contacted other schools.

SEMS is a peer-to-peer program in which certified student Emergency Medical Technicians, under supervision of a medical director, attend campus parties and events to provide emergency medical assistance.

These student EMTs are not responsible for regulating alcohol consumption at parties, but attend parties and watch for and treat individuals showing signs of having consumed too much alcohol, Rossi said.

“They don’t police. They endorse college culture with responsibilities,” Rossi said.

SEMS at UCLA would be student-operated and be paid for by campus-based student fees, with an estimated initial cost of $6,000 to $10,000 and yearly operational costs of $30,000, Rossi said.

If the program moves forward at UCLA, Rossi estimates it could be fully operational within a year.

Rossi, now the president of the nonprofit SEMS Foundation, sent out e-mails to UCLA staff last week hoping to bring SEMS to campus.

UCLA staff members met the program with skepticism.

The program’s value at UCLA is not as high as it is at the University of Colorado, said Pam Viele, director of Student Health Education at the UCLA Arthur Ashe Student Health and Wellness Center.

She said one reason is that the cultures at UCLA and the University of Colorado are very different.

“What works at one university doesn’t always work at another,” she said.

The SEMS program comes with an education component that is intended to train students, especially fraternity and sorority members, to recognize and treat alcohol-related problems, Rossi said.

But the UCLA Chapter of Greeks Advocating the Mature Management of Alcohol also questioned whether UCLA needs the SEMS Program.

“SEMS is unnecessary and redundant here at UCLA,” GAMMA chairwoman Vanessa Roman said.

She said she does not believe UCLA needs the SEMS program because the campus already has alcohol education programs and safeguards at Greek events, such as trained security and social chairs who regulate parties.

UCLA also has a reputation of relatively safe and moderate consumption of alcohol.

“Incidents involving emergency medical attention are few and far between at UCLA Greek parties, and have always been well identified by those patrolling the party,” Roman said.

Roman said the money spent on SEMS could be better used to fund current programs, such as GAMMA’s SAFERIDE program, which is a van service providing safe transportation to and from Greek parties.

According to the 2002 Ashe Center Student Survey, UCLA has consistently ranked below the national average in prevalence of heavy drinking.

Only 21.9 percent of UCLA students report heavy drinking, while nationally, 44.4 percent of students drink heavily.

The prevalence of heavy drinking at UCLA in 2002 was down from 35 percent in 1995.

Though fraternities and sororities have a higher rate of alcohol use and heavy drinking, UCLA students generally show a very low rate of negative consequences due to drinking, such as getting hurt or blacking out, when compared to the national average, according to the survey.

But UCLA Interfraternity Council President Matt Olsson said even though UCLA has most alcohol issues under control, the SEMS Program could be another step in the right direction.

Olsson affirmed the effectiveness of UCLA and IFC’s current programs of alcohol management, but said IFC would support SEMS as “another way to get the message across.”

The SEMS Foundation would provide the educational and logistical material necessary for establishing the program, but UCLA students would take over from there, Rossi said.

SEMS would need the permission of UCLA Greek Life to operate on campus, and would likely be operated by UCLA Greek students such as Interfraternity Council members, Rossi said.

American Medical Student Association External President Elisabeth Berger called the program a good idea, but expressed concern over exactly how SEMS would train its student EMTs.

Berger also said it was likely that AMSA members would be interested in volunteering for the program if it’s created at UCLA.

The SEMS Program proposal comes in the wake of another alcohol awareness program, AlcoholEdu, which was recently adopted at UCLA as the university’s first mandatory alcohol-education program.