Free Essay About Drinking On Campus: Whos Problem Is It

Drinking at college has become a custom that students frequently see as an essential part of their higher-education experience. Research shows that more than 80 percent of college students drink alcohol, and almost half report binge drinking in the past two weeks. Despite of the frequent hard work by the government, the danger over consumption of alcohol remains a major health and safety problems affecting college students on campuses across the United States. Some people believe that regulating drinking in college is the governments' job and not the responsibility of college administrators. This viewpoint is incorrect. College administrators should take responsibility for students drinking on campus, especially giventhat many of them are underage. Drinking affects college students, families, and college communities because it has serious consequences such as academic problems, behavior issues, and health issues.
Alcohol abuse in young people, such as college students can cause serious health issues in the long term including sleep disturbances, mood and personality changes, anxiety, depression, and shortened attention. A recent study reveals that more than 150,000 students develop an alcohol-related health issues and between 1.2 and 1.5 percent of students indicate that they tried to commit suicide within the past year because of drinking or drug use. College students need special care and supervision because they do not realize the negative effects of alcohol abuse. College administrators must step forward and take this responsibility because students or their parents invest a great deal of money to ensure that they receive a quality education in a safe environment.
Another huge negative effect of students' drinking is its interference with their education. About one-quarter of college students report having academic problems due to their drinking such as missing classes, falling behind others, doing poorly on exams or papers, and getting lower grades overall. Moreover, students who drink heavily not only harm themselves, but other students to by partying and making noise. Other students cannot focus on studying because they need a quest environment in order to do well. It is certainly the college officials' responsibility to care nurture students' academic performance and develop their education . A study conducted by the NCASA in 1994, has stated, "alcohol is implicated in as many as 41% of academic problems and 28% of all dropouts" (p. 21). The study shows how much alcohol abuse could affect the students' academic performance. In my own experience, I have seen at least two freshmen forced to drop out because their “partying” prevented class attendance. Drinking alcohol can make a person lose control of their behavior and act carelessly. Often, blackouts occur where the drinker does not remember their actions or what was done to them. Drunken students’ behavior can harm themselves, hurt others, and damage property. These behaviors include drunk driving, unsafe sex, sexual abuse, vandalism, theft and other property crimes. I have personally witnessed property damaged by parties, both private residences and school dormitories. Owners and renters are held responsible for thousands of dollars worth of damages caused by drunken students. With their inhibitions reduced due to alcohol use, college students are more prone to commit assaults. Annually, police record 696,000 assaults by drunken students between the ages of 18 and 24. In addition, every year an enormous number of young students are victims of alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape. College officials can prevent all of these consequences if they concentrated their efforts on campus. While monitoring the conduct of the students is difficult, expensive and time-consuming, the Officials would benefit by making their campuses safer, and more successful.
On the other hand, some people think that it is not the college officials' job to control drinking among students, but it is the government duty to do so. They think that if something happened on campus because of alcohol abuse, college officials should not take the blame. Furthermore, controlling students' drinking behaviors is not one of the college administrators’ jobs; they are not paid for that, so why should they care? It is a big responsibility to take care of a whole campus. In addition, the government already has rules about drinking alcohol and they will punish anyone who disobeys them. The notion of college administrators adding their own system of punishments would be redundant. If a student is already facing fines and jail time for underage drinking, threatening academic sanctions on top of that would be “piling on”. Such action would be excessive and unnecessary, given the rules already in place to combat criminal behavior while drinking. This line of thought is in error, though. Often, law enforcement does not go far enough in alerting the student to the severity of he actions. Fines can be easily paid, and rarly does the act of underage drinking lead to incarceration. Students need immediate consequences so that they realize the severity of their behavior, and are motivated to change their behavior. College officials can offer those types of consequences.
In short, alcohol abuse among college students is a serious problem that needs more attention by college administrators. Every year young college students suffer from the effects of alcohol abuse. Drinking can harm both college students who drink alcohol those who do not. Problems include serious health issues, injuries, sexual abuse, assault, and property damage. Basic regulation by the college officials can prevent all of these harmful effects. While some may think that it is solely the government’s job to control alcohol abuse among college students, college officials should be involved and work hand to hand with the government to protect the nation’s college students.