It’s Saturday night, and junior George Salmons is mixing a cosmopolitan. It will be his fourth cocktail of the night. George is not considering any of the consequences of this choice. At the very least, tomorrow he may end up being too hung- over to do his schoolwork. The lack of responsibility in this instance reflects a much larger issue; students aren’t taught how to respect alcohol.
Four out of five students report that they drink alcohol, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Half of these students will practice unsafe consumption, or binge drinking, though many college students do not understand the dangerous repercussions of doing so.
According to the NIAAA, “1,825 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die each year from alcohol- related unintentional injuries.” The Institute notes that 97,000 students between these ages are victims of alcohol-related sexual assault. The effects of alcohol last longer than one night, evident in the fact that 25 percent of students report falling behind in school due to the consumption of alcohol.
Alcohol monitoring has fallen out of style on campuses, as educators don’t know how to manage such a large group of students. The New York Times reports that only half of all colleges and universities consistently enforce their alcohol policies. The article notes that only a third of universities do compliance checks to monitor the illegal sale of alcohol to minors.
SLU has its own methods of curbing binge drinking. All SLU students are required to sit through an assembly with Dean of Student Life Rance Davis. In these assemblies Davis warns students of the consequences of risky drinking behavior. Though fear is an effective motivator, SLU uses education to change student behavior.
“After seeing Rance for an alcohol related incident, students are required to schedule a counseling session. We believe education is key in forming good habits,” says Shirley Sochia, a CASAC-G at the Diana B. Torrey health and counseling center. Sochia adds that the safest way to avoid the dangers of drinking is abstinence.
Asking college students to completely reject alcohol is unrealistic, as it is deeply ingrained in the social aspect of university life.
“It’s very easy for first- years, when everyone’s still establishing their roots and social habits for the remainder of their college career, to establish unhealthy roots from a commonly felt sentiment that the only social events going on around campus are directly related to drinking,” says Salmons.
Randy Haveson, the author of Party With a Plan, asserts that simply instructing students to drink responsibly is confusing because “responsible drinking” is subjective. “I’ve had students tell me they’ve had 10-12 beers, but [they] don’t drive. So [they were] being responsible,” says Haveson. Students hear this message over and over again, and they don’t understand how to interpret it.
Haveson’s new
offers an explanation to the confusion. “What I use is called the 0,1,2,3 approach- it’s sort of like the speed limit for drinking. It gets students to consider the consequences of their actions before making a risky decision,” says Haveson. His formulaic approach gives students a way to measure if they’re drinking responsibly.
In Havson’s formula, level zero means that the student should consider not drinking because it could impact their physical health, or ability to complete academic work. Level one refers to the number of drinks an individual should have an hour. Level two is the number of days you should drink a week. Three refers to the number of drinks you should have in a 24-hour period.
Students don’t understand the risks of binge drinking, administrators don’t know how to effectively manage the subject, and often our conversation is shrouded in vague terminology. When going out to party this Saturday, I encourage my fellow students to monitor their consumption habits. The risks of binge drinking can be avoided if we think before we act.