A UC Davis student died early Tuesday morning of a possible alcohol overdose after a night of drinking in a downtown bar to celebrate his 21st birthday, according to city of Davis police. David Earl Thornton was not breathing when his friends brought him to the emergency room at Sutter Davis Hospital at 11:50 p.m. Monday night, said Davis police Lt. Don Brooks. He was pronounced dead at 12:13 a.m. Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef expressed the campus community's sympathy to Thornton's family and friends. "This is a tragedy for the campus," the chancellor said. "He was a wonderful student with such unrealized potential." Vanderhoef noted the extensive programs the campus has in place to warn students about the risks of consuming alcohol and other drugs. "We have a long history of involvement in helping students make responsible decisions about alcohol use," he said. Lt. Brooks said preliminary tests conducted in the emergency room indicated that Thornton's blood-alcohol level was "very, very high." More tests and an autopsy were scheduled Tuesday afternoon. At a Tuesday news conference on campus, Brooks was pressed to say how many drinks Thornton might have had. He answered, "Social drinking is one thing. Binge drinking is another. Each individual should assess their own limitation -- and stop well short of it." Thornton was a UC Davis senior from Fresno. He was majoring in biological sciences and expected to graduate in 2001. From his first year as a freshman, Thornton excelled, his teachers remembered. He achieved a cumulative grade-point average of 3.36, which is between an A and a B average. He also participated since fall quarter in 1997 in the Davis Honors Challenge, a campuswide program for highly motivated students interested in enhancing their education through special courses, closer contact with faculty and dynamic interaction with academic peers. Carol Wall, UC Davis vice chancellor for student affairs, said at the news conference that she had talked with Thornton's friends, who described him as always in a good mood, always excited to see his friends, and extremely loyal to family and friends. Wall echoed Vanderhoef's distress at Thornton's death. "Twenty-first birthdays are transitions to be celebrated, not to be mourned," she said. "We should not be losing our fine young people in this way." Wall said the campus was working to help students make better choices in handling such life transitions. "We want to shift the balance so we have more and more students who choose not to drink." UC Davis teaching assistant Mark Renz, who assisted with the Biological Sciences 1C class that Thornton took last fall, recalls him as an "incredibly bright and intelligent student who worked very well independently with little assistance." Thornton had been employed since March 1999 at the ASUCD (Associated Students of UC Davis) Campus Copies service in the Memorial Union. His manager, Randy Rubiales, said he saw Thornton on Monday, and recalled him as a "great guy. He was someone you could count on, and a fun guy to be around." Although Thornton was a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity, he did not live in the fraternity house and the birthday celebration was not a fraternity event. Davis police said late Tuesday afternoon that they were still interviewing people who were with Thornton Monday night and people who might have seen the group he was with. They asked anyone with information to telephone the 24-hour police line at (530) 756-3740.