The Indiana University student who died in a Ball State dorm early Saturday after a night of partying had been a high school football star who liked to joke around, a friend said this week.
Kevin Rivers, a freshman English major, said he had seen more than 60 Facebook posts about the death of Jarrod Polston.
"I was in disbelief," Rivers said. "I went to school with him all through high school. He was a football star... He was one of the friendliest guys I've ever known; one of the nicest men I've ever known."
Polston died Saturday in Whitcraft Hall Room 276 in Studebaker West Complex. Victoria Hays called the University Police Department around 10 a.m., and officer Cory Cummings responded at 10:05 a.m., according to the initial case report filed by UPD. University officials did not confirm Hays' connection to Polston or to the university.
Further information contained in the report is not available through public records, since this is an ongoing investigation.
Polston was pronounced dead at 10:49 a.m. Saturday by Delaware County Coroner Jim Clevenger after being rushed to Ball Memorial Hospital. Clevenger said a toxicology report will be released in a few weeks, which should confirm that alcohol and use of methadone drugs led to vomiting and the cause of death.
Police Chief Gene Burton said he's not sure how long the investigation will take. He said he knew only a handful of similar cases involving binge drinking and students blacking out, and could not remember of another case on campus where it led to a death.
A Ball State alumnus, Burton said he thinks the efforts the university makes to educate students about alcohol have also increased in the past few years.
"I think the one thing that [has changed is] the university has been more proactive and trying to help with education and prevention on alcohol than when I was a student," he said.
Burton declined to comment on the investigation.
All residence halls begin the academic year with weekend 24-hour visitation, which allows residents to have visitors from 9 a.m. to 12 a.m. Sunday through Thursday, according to the Housing and Residence Life website. Residents can have opposite-gender visitors at any time on Friday and Saturday. Baker/Klipple, Park, Kinghorn and the over-21 floors in Shively and Elliott halls have 24 hour / 7-day visitation for the academic year, according to the site.
Guests of the residence halls are expected to follow all university policies, and the residents are responsible for their guests and all actions of the guests. All guests entering the residence hall between midnight and 8 a.m. must be registered, according to the site. Registration can be completed at the front desk of each residence hall or community check-in stations.
The front desk staff at the Painter/Whitcraft halls said that visitors usually sign in at the front desk. One white copy of the completed form stays with the staff, the other yellow copy stays with the visitor as proof of registration. On Monday, the desk staff did not know where the completed forms were kept.
Elvira Rajala, residence hall director of Painter/Whitcraft halls said that she did not have the visitor forms for the past weekend, and directed all questions to Tony Proudfoot, associate vice president for marketing and communications, and [said] her supervisor Matt Kovach, the assistant director for Housing and Residence Life in LaFollette Complex, should have the forms.
Kovach did not say whether or not he had the forms, but said that the forms could be accessed through Proudfoot or the police department. Proudfoot said he could not release any information about the forms because of the ongoing investigation.
Rivers said, although Polston's death was significant, he doesn't think much will change with how much alcohol students will consume in the future.
"A lot of the times, things have to happen and these become examples from people, I'm just mad that he was the example," he said "I'll certainly watch for my friends if they're ever drinking or doing whatever they're doing. [Polston's death] made me a little bit weary, but it just depressed me. It didn't make me want to stop drinking."
Tara Jones, Rhett Umphress and Sarah Boswell contributed to this article.
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