Still Giving It the Old College Cry: Drink!

As colleges focus increasingly on the problem of alcohol on campus, a survey from the Harvard School of Public Health shows that more college students than ever are drinking with the sole purpose of getting drunk.

Data released here this month from the school’s 1997 College Alcohol Study also show that four of five fraternity and sorority members are binge drinkers. Frequent binge drinkers at college also reported vastly more problems ranging from arguments with peers to missed classes to unplanned sexual activity.

Despite highly publicized alcohol-related deaths and continuing examinations of college policies, study director Dr. Henry Wechsler said, “the extent and nature of binge drinking has not changed. In fact, there has been an intensification of severe drinking behavior among drinkers.”

The study was not all bad news. Wechsler, who also directed the first major study of college-age drinking in 1993, said it was significant that 19% of students abstained from drinking in 1997, up from 15.6% in 1993.

The 1997 report was based on responses from 14,521 students at 116 colleges in 39 states. Two of five students, 42.7%,were reported to be binge drinkers, a drop so slight from 1993’s 44.1% that researchers regard the trend as steady. The self-administered questionnaire was distributed to a random sample of students; close to 50% replied.

Half the 1997 group described themselves as frequent binge drinkers. Heavy episodic or binge drinking was defined as the consumption of at least five drinks in a row for men, four in a row for women, during the two weeks before students completed the questionnaire.

Excessive use of alcohol among college students has long troubled school administrators. The issue has received heightened attention since 1997, when a series of fatalities were attributed to drinking.

At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the 1997 death of freshman Scott Krueger after a party prompted the school to issue requirements that first-year students live on campus. MIT also was named a defendant this month in a lawsuit filed by a 19-year-old who said she was sexually attacked at a campus party in 1996. Angela Colt said she was served so much liquor that she was unable to ward off her alleged assailant, an MIT student. Rape charges against the student were recently dismissed.

Dr. William DeJong, director of the Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention, said the lawsuits “make schools realize that they cannot protect themselves by running from the problem. Colleges and universities, like any owner of any property, must take measures to deal with foreseeable risk.”

DeJong, whose Newton, Mass.-based research organization operates under a contract from the U.S. Department of Education, said a number of schools have applied “an environmental management approach” to the problem of binge drinking among students. The thrust of this method, DeJong said, “is to get people on campus in dialogue with people in the community” such as bar and liquor store owners and police.

This tactic forms the centerpiece of a recent grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that provides funds for 10 colleges to establish coalitions between the schools and communities to curb student drunkenness.

Education Secretary Richard W. Riley recently joined a task force of higher education associations to introduce a “Safety Six-Pack” outlining actions and advice for parents, students and school officials.

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Binge Drinkers

About two of every five college students engaged in binge drinking in 1997, roughly the same proportion that reported themselves as binge drinkers in 1993. Other details from the study by the Harvard School of Public Health:

Drinking Styles

* Drank on 10 or more occasions in the past 30 days

Total

1993: 17.6%

1997: 20.4%

Men

1993: 23.8%

1997: 14.9%

Women

1993: 12.7%

1997: 14.9%

* Was drunk three or more times in the past month

Total

1993: 22.9%

1997: 27.9%

Men

1993: 27.9%

1997: 33.7%

Women

1993: 18.8%

1997: 23.8%

* Usually binges when drinking

Total

1993: 40.1%

1997: 41.5%%

Men

1993: 42.4%

1997: 43.2%

Women

1993: 38.1%

1997: 40.2%

* Drinks to get drunk

Total

1993: 39.4%

1997: 52.3%

Men

1993: 44.6%

1997: 58.4%

Women

1993: 35.4%

1997: 48.2%

Alcohol-related Problems

Total % reporting problem

*--*

Problem 1993 1997 Do something you regret 32.0 36.5 Miss a class 26.4 30.2 Forget where you were or what you did 24.3 26.7 Get behind in school work 20.0 23.2 Argue with friends 19.4 23.5 Engage in unplanned sexual activity 19.0 22.5 Get hurt or injured 9.2 11.5 Damage property 8.5 10.4 Don’t use protection when having sex 9.7 11.2 Get into trouble with campus or local police 4.3 5.9 Drive after drinking alcohol 31.6 35.8 Have 5 or more alcohol-related problems 16.2 19.8

*--*

*Results are based on two surveys of full-time students on 116 college campuses in 39 states. In 1993, 15,103 students returned the self-administered questionnaire. In 1997, 14,521 students responded. The surveys define binge drinking as five drinks in a row for men and four drinks for women.

Source: The Harvard School of Public Health.