College Chiefs Join to Fight Binge Drinking

Like new recruits in a 12-step recovery program, college presidents are taking a crucial first step: admitting that their campuses have a binge drinking problem.

It’s a remarkable turnaround for many college presidents who have long ducked the issue, as one explained, for “fear that if you admitted a problem, it might affect your applications, admissions and reputation.”

Leaders of 113 state universities and colleges will launch a national advertising campaign Friday calling attention to excessive drinking and how, experts say, it contributes to 40% of all academic problems, 28% of college dropout cases and an estimated three dozen deaths a year.

The ad campaign joins an emerging college temperance movement that includes stiffer enforcement of underage drinking laws and the surging popularity of substance-free dorms, “dry” fraternities, alcohol-free swing dances and clean and sober rock concerts.

Still, the participation of college presidents is a turning point in the battle against binge drinking, health educators say, because presidents set the tone on campus and divvy up the dollars.

Their fears about tarnished reputations have recently been eclipsed by another round of surveys showing that more college students than ever--an estimated 3 million--guzzle beer or other alcohol specifically to get drunk.

And then there is pressure to staunch the relentless flow of students into the emergency rooms for alcohol poisoning and alcohol-related injuries.

Drunk Student Fell to His Death

In mid-July, UCLA math student Kris Kutske, 20, plunged to his death during a Westwood party after attempting a running toss of a beer bottle from an apartment’s fourth-floor balcony. His blood-alcohol level was 0.16%, twice the legal limit for driving.

“This is a serious national problem, and UCLA is not immune,” said the Westwood campus’ chancellor, Albert Carnesale, who has signed on to the ad campaign. “If I went out by myself on this issue, it might appear that UCLA has a special problem with binge drinking. We actually have less of a problem.”

About 43% of college students are binge drinkers, defined as men who recently downed at least five drinks in a row and women who consumed four or more drinks, according to a survey released last fall by the Harvard School of Public Health. As with many other schools in the West, UCLA’s numbers were smaller: about 33% met that definition.

Nonetheless, the UCLA Medical Center’s emergency room treats 20 to 50 students a year for alcohol poisoning, said Dr. David Schriger, associate professor of emergency medicine.

“On the busy party weekends, there are a few who roll through the door,” he said. “That doesn’t count those who come in for trauma from alcohol-related car accidents. It’s a more significant problem.”

The Harvard study showed that about 30% of incoming freshmen were experienced binge drinkers before reaching college, so the presidents’ $600,000 ad campaign specifically targets parents rather than students. The idea is to get parents talking to their children before they head off to the dorm or the frat house.

Initially, the ad was designed to show a body on a gurney, with the message: “Millions of college students called home last weekend. Others didn’t get the chance.”

But some campuses believed that scare tactics wouldn’t work. So the ad--running Friday in the Los Angeles Times and other major newspapers--features a bottle labeled “Binge Beer” under the headline “Hitting college campuses this fall.”

The text begins with sarcasm: “Who says falling off a balcony is such a bad thing? And what’s an occasional riot? Or even a little assault between friends? Thousands of college students across the country have already discovered binge. And this year, thousands more will try it. Don’t think that’s a good idea? Neither do we.”

Asked for his reaction to the ad, incoming UCLA freshman Tony Tantikul said: “More kids would find it humorous than take it seriously. Freshmen realize that college means lots of parties.”

David Archer, 29, a returning student, did not think the ad would grab parents either. “Most parents feel pretty confident about the way they raise their kids,” he said. “If they are sending their kids to college, they think they’ve done a pretty good job.”

Yet Archer praised the effort, given the years he spent drinking. “I did the binge thing 10 years ago,” he said. “I was in college to party. I had to break away and get myself together after four years of being sober.”

UCLA, like the other participating campuses, plans to run the ad in campus publications.

But UCLA also has ads targeting students. The proliferation of such anti-alcohol ads on campuses has set off a fierce debate about how to persuade students to be responsible drinkers.

Some ads try to startle students with graphic descriptions. A popular ad, with the headline “It’s Easier to Meet Girls,” shows a young man in a T-shirt draped over a toilet bowl.

Health experts such as William DeJong, director of the Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention, believes that such graphic ads do not work.

“It’s not a matter of educating college students,” he said. “They’ve been hearing about the dangers of alcohol since elementary school.”

Instead, he prefers a “social norms” approach, which is now catching on at many campuses. The general idea is that students often drink too much because they think it’s normal, and they want to fit in. The ads aim to redefine what is normal.

So Dartmouth College, which may make all of its fraternities coeducational to curb alcohol abuse, plans an ad campaign showing survey results that a majority of Dartmouth students are not binge drinkers and 58% do not think alcohol is important at a party.

Presidents’ Action Seen as Milestone

DeJong considers the involvement of college presidents a milestone in the movement to change alcohol-centered culture. Last year, his center sent college leaders a report titled “Be Vocal, Be Visible, Be Visionary.”

“It was important to light a fire under college and university presidents who have long said alcohol was among their biggest problems, but just haven’t been there,” he said.

Graham Spanier, president of Pennsylvania State University, said he first suggested that he and his colleagues tackle the issue of “excessive consumption of alcohol and social responsibility” at a meeting three years ago. His idea was met, he said, “with silence and stares of surprise.”

Many of these same presidents later cycled back to him after facing a student riot or an alcohol-related death, he said.

Suddenly, he said, a critical mass of presidents and chancellors realized that publicly confronting the problem would not harm their schools’ reputations.

“I admit that we have a problem,” said Charles B. Reed, chancellor of the 22-campus California State University system. “The more of us who say we have a problem, the more we engage students, the better prepared they will be in understanding the consequences.”

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Binge Drinking at College

More than 100 state universities and colleges are launching an advertising campaign this week to call attention to problem drinking. Below are research figures on the prevalence of binge drinking by college students. A binge was defined as five drinks in a row or more by men and four in a row or more by women during the two weeks before students completed the survey.