(Student’s Full Name)
INTRODUCTION
“Alcohol is cited as being responsible each year for 1,400 student deaths; 500, 000 unintentional injuries; 600,000 student assaults; 112,000 arrests; and 2.1 million cases of driving under the influence of alcohol” –Rob Turrisi et al 402
The above statistics acknowledge the dangers of binge drinking at colleges. However, binge drinking at colleges and universities in the United States is still a growing problem. Some experts argue that binge drinking is a problem amongst college-age students because they were, frighteningly, already exposed to excessive drinking at earlier stage in their development. Therefore, some experts contend that in order to deal with this epidemic occurring at US tertiary level institutions then it is important that excessive drinking habits be spotted at the high school level or even earlier. However, there are still others who posit that to deal with this problem will require more than “early detection and prevention efforts,” but it will need to involve other solutions, such as promoting moderate drinking, penalizing colleges that permit binge drinking and allowing Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) to play an integral role on college campuses that have problems with binge drinking. It is important that solutions be created to deal with the problem of excessive drinking on college campuses because, although excessive drinking is practiced at colleges so as to ensure that college students are accepted by their peers, the activity is harmful for those engaged in the activity. It is harmful because excessive drinking affects the college student’s health in multiple ways, impairs judgment, thereby making it difficult to perform activities, such as driving, affects academic performance, and can lead to a person’s death.
DISCUSSION OF THE PROBLEM OF COLLEGE BINGE DRINKING
Franklin Krohn admits that in today’s world excessive drinking is becoming an increasingly “serious” problem (2). Most individuals do not consider alcohol to be a drug since it is used for “religious and social purposes” (Krohn 2). It is because of this fact that many persons do not find drinking alcohol to be problematic. This is especially true for a student on a college campus. Krohn explains that many college students “comply with excessive drinking patterns because their friends reinforce their behavior” (Krohn 1). Krohn indicates further that it is normal that persons are “more willing to comply with requests from friends or from people liked” rather than “requests from strangers or people not liked” (Krohn 1). Scrivo describes an incident involving a “21-year-old honors student” of the University of Virginia by the name of Leslie Anne Baltz, who in an effort to conform to the “social norms” by adhering to a “longtime custom among University of Virginia (UVA) seniors,” participated in excessive drinking that led to her death (Krohn 1; Scrivo par. 3). Scrivo explains that Baltz participated in a UVA tradition that required seniors to drink a “fifth of liquor before the football team’s last home game” (par. 3). After her friends left her sleeping on a “couch” to watch the “football game,” they came back to see that Baltz “fell down a flight of stairs” (Scrivo par. 3). Baltz’s friends rushed her to the hospital where she was pronounced dead. In another instance of a fatality caused by excessive drinking, a MIT student by the name of Scott Kruger, who was under 21 years old, failed to re-gain “consciousness after heavy drinking at an off-campus party” held by a “fraternity that he was pledging” at (Scrivo par. 15). Krohn explains that students, such as Kruger, are willing to give in to the demands of fraternities and sororities because they are skilled at getting college students to “like them so that they will be more willing to agree with their requests” (1).
Fatalities are not the only negative effects of excessive drinking as it pertains to the harming of the individual’s physical well-being. In fact, college students who binge drink “one or two times during a 2-week period” are almost “three times as likely as non-binge drinkers” to have a “blackout” have “unprotected or unplanned sex” that could lead to “unwanted pregnancies” or “sexually transmitted diseases” and “suffer an injury” (Glatter par. 2). In addition, George Dowdall mentions that over “150,000 students develop an alcohol-related health problem” (par. 25). Furthermore, Dowdall indicates that there is a “positive relationship between binge drinking and driving under the influence of alcohol” (par. 8). The writer noted that in a study conducted by Harvard University in 1999 “three in five of the frequent binge drinkers” on college campuses studied “drove under the influence of alcohol” (Dowdall par. 8). Therefore, this means that college students engaged in excessive drinking are more likely to become involved in “dangerous driving behaviors” (Dowdall par. 8).
Excessive drinking on college campuses have caused students to perform poorly in their academic work. For instance, Dowdall indicated that approximately a quarter of the US college population “report academic consequences of their” excessive drinking includes “missing class, falling behind, doing poorly on exams or papers, and receiving lower grades overall” (par. 25). Robert Glatter acknowledges the fact that a Harvard study arrived at the conclusion that college students who excessively drink “one or two times during a 2-week period” are almost “three times as likely as” students who do not drink excessively to do “poorly in school” (par. 3).
POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS TO COLLEGE BINGE DRINKING
One possible way that colleges can address and deal with the problems of excessive drinking on campus by students is to allow the organization Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) to play an integral role in educating students as to the dangers of binge drinking as well as to overcome “alcohol abuse” (Krohn 2). For instance, AA, which has a twelve-step program, can be asked by colleges that have problems with excessive drinking to create a course similar to the “‘Substance Abuse and Society’” class that Blatz’s friends attended after her death (Scrivo para. 5). However, it should be noted that even after Blatz’s death and attending the class, students were not motivated to stop excessively drinking. They felt that they were invincible and excessive drinking could not harm them.
If allowing AA and creating a course that would help educate students about the danger excessive drinking and implementing their twelve-step program does not work, then the college would need to exact stiff penalties on fraternities and sororities promote excessive drinking, especially amongst minors. Furthermore, colleges can prevent sororities and fraternities from serving alcohol at their parties. Nevertheless, college students frequently disagree with this method used by colleges to curb “excessive drinking habits” as they claim that it impinges on their “social life” (Krohn 2).
In the event that totally preventing the consumption of alcohol is too restrictive to follow, the colleges can promote moderate drinking instead. Scrivo explains that tertiary institutions should instead to promote the message that “most studentsdrink responsibly” (par. 26). Krohn explains that when a person moderates the amount of alcohol that she consumes daily then it can benefit her “(1) health, (2) scholastic performance, and (3) a decline in violence” (5). Krohn explains that a moderate amount of alcohol is “one five-ounce glass of wine, one 12-ounce beer, or 1 ½ shots of liquor” on a day-to-day basis (5).
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, excessive drinking is becoming a growing problem on university and college campuses. This is the case because college students, who are motivated by their desire to be accepted, engage in excessive drinking. Excessive or binge drinking have been known to affect the physical well-being of students, impair their judgment while driving, and even cause fatalities. In response to this epidemic, colleges should enlist the help of the AA to educate and rehabilitate students, discourage the consumption of alcohol on their campuses, or encourage moderate drinking.
Works Cited
Dowdall, George W. College Drinking: Reframing a Social Problem. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2009. Print.
Glatter, Robert. “Update on Binge Drinking Among College Students: From Bad to Worse.” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 11 Mar. 2014. Web. 03 Mar. 2016. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertglatter/2014/03/11/update-on-binge-drinking-among-college-students-from-bad-to-worse/#6255c22e11f3>.
Krohn, Franklin B. “Colleges Should Promote Moderate Drinking.”Alcohol Abuse. Ed.
HaiSong Harvey. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2003. At Issue. Rpt. from “Alcohol
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Scrivo, Karen Lee. “Drinking on Campus.” CQ Researcher. 20 Mar. 1998. Web. 03 Mar. 2016. <http://photo.pds.org:5012/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre2006081800>.
Turrisi, Rob, Kimberly A. Mallett, Nadine R. Mastroleo, and Mary E. Larimer. “Heavy Drinking in College Students: Who Is at Risk and What Is Being Done About It?” The Journal of General Psychology 133.4 (2006): 401-20. HHS Public Access. Web. 03 Mar. 2016. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2238801/>.
“What Is A.A.?” Alcoholics Anonymous: What Is AA? Web. 03 Mar. 2016. <http://www.aa.org/pages/en_US/what-is-aa>.
