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Should college campuses ban alcohol
Alcohol on college campuses
Alcohol on college campuses
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Should college campuses ban alcohol
Alcohol on college campuses
Alcohol on college campuses
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Recommended: Should college campuses ban alcohol
Robert Voas states teen pregnancy, sexual assaults, and crime rates have increased due to underage drinking. Alcohol consumption at a college age leads to 600,000 physical assaults and 70,000 sexual assaults yearly according to a study (464). Joyce Alcantara claims if the age were lowered back to eighteen then it would put younger teens at risk (468). People tend to have friends around their same age. So, if eighteen year olds were allowed to drink then their friends which are roughly around the age of sixteen or seventeen would likely have an alcoholic drink in their hand as well.
She states “The first large-scale examination of alcohol uses among college students began in 1993. Run by Henry Wechsler, a social psychologist at the Harvard University School of Public Health, the College Alcohol Study surveyed 17,000 students at 140 colleges on why and how they drink” (McMurtrie). This also shows the ongoing battle colleges have had trying to control or at least maintain college students drinking. McMurtrie also states “Educators and researchers who lived through this period say a combination of exhaustion, frustration, inertia, lack of resources, and campus and community politics derailed the national conversation about college drinking. Taking on the problem proved tougher than anyone had thought” (McMurtrie).
According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism on average almost 60% of college students will engage in drinking alcohol. (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism) This prevalence of underage drinking at college has given fraternities and sororities a very large reputation of being border line alcoholics. According to the Addiction Center 4 out of 5 fraternity and sorority members are binge drinkers compared to regular college students who average only 2 out of every 5. (Addiction Center)
Radley Balko’s essay that ingeniously welcomes a protagonist approach towards the menace of underage drinking is abreast of the lifestyles freshmen lead in campus today. Worse still, federal laws are flouted each dawn like never before. Lobby groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving despite providing an oversight on minimum drinking age, seem oblivious of the illicit alcohol consumption in campus. Analytically, minimum drinking age takes prevalence in the papers but is ferociously compromised in other formal and informal settings. Balko notes that there is more to federal laws and protracted oversight if the war on binge drinking is to be contained.
Most people would probably associate college age men and women with drinking alcohol in excessive amounts. This is a typical stereotype of college students. It seems that a lot of college students just assume the responsibility of drinking because they are college students. This seems to be the norm. Thomas Vander Ven, in his book Getting Wasted, studied college students on three different campuses in order to decipher the mystery behind the reason college students tend to drink (Vander Ven 2011).
In both essays, the debate over alcohol on college campuses is the thesis statements and are signaled in the title. For instance, in the essay “Yes, Colleges Should Be Allowed to Ban Alcohol on Their Campuses” by Jessica Gross her claim is stated in the title of the essay itself. She believes that the college campus has the right to ban or allow alcohol on their campus and if the applicant doesn’t want to attend the college based on their alcohol preferences, then there are plenty of other schools to attend. In contrast the essay “No, Colleges Should Not Be Allowed to Ban Alcohol on Their Campus” by Mike Dang again like the previous essay Dang states his thesis and which side he is arguing for in the title of the essay. Dang believes that
(White) Also, “Consequences of college drinking include missed classes and lower grades, injuries, sexual assaults, overdoses, memory blackouts, changes in brain function, lingering cognitive deficits, and death” (White) Finally White says, “When the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) issued its first report on alcohol misuse by college students, research advances have transformed our
Society has left an invisible impact on how we perceive the college lifestyle as a whole. This ranges from the belief that all students are sleep deprived from staying up too late to finish their homework. Also the sociological acceptance that college is the place to party and drink every single weekend. Theirs a sociological point of view and how society has played a key part in underage drinking being accepted in college towns. Not just limited to the effects of alcohol on a student’s wellbeing; also, the short term and long term conditions that can arise from binge drinking.
This issue needs to be addressed immediately before more lives are lost and more mistakes are made; especially since alcohol is the third-leading cause of preventable deaths in the Unites States (Alcohol Facts and Statistics, par. 7). The Center for Disease Control and Prevention, or the CDC, found that since the rise of the drinking age 30 years prior, 12 to 20 year olds used 11% of all alcohol consumed in the United States, and more than 90% of that alcohol is consumed during binge drinking (Cary, par. 6). Furthermore, the significance of a changed education system about the safety of drugs including alcohol is supported by the fact that in 2010, the CDC established that drug overdoses claim more lives than vehicle crashes annually (Cary, par. 6). Moreover, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism reported that annually, “1,825 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die from alcohol-related unintentional injuries” (College Drinking, par. 4). For the same age group, 696,000 are assaulted by another student who has been drinking and 97,000 students report experiencing alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape each year (College Drinking, par.
College is an experimental time of self-discovery consisting of independence, growth, and learning. Although it’s easier said than done to establish one’s independence and confidence, this is one of the biggest struggle’s new students face. Anxiety is the main cause of alcohol abuse in students, they are free for the first time and have many opportunities to use it as a coping mechanism. Although consuming alcohol isn’t entirely bad, it is something that needs to be consumed in moderation. Binge drinking is a serious concern in modern university culture.
According to Time.com, the “temporary bans that campus create after attacks” are not strict enough. There should be more long term consequences for those who commit sexual assault crimes. Another punishment that should be enforced more is “bans on booze” (Time). Due to most sexual assaults involving alcohol consumption, there should be more strict laws and bans on alcohol. According to CollegeDrinkingPrevention.gov, “on average, about half of college student sexual assaults are associated with alcohol use”.
By the time they are high school seniors, seventy-two percent teenagers say they have already consumed alcohol. Proper education at younger ages is needed for our country’s youth to learn the proper use of alcohol through experimentation with their own limits in safe environments.
Some might say that the use of alcohol is common place and nothing more than a stepping stone in the ritual of being a college student. The problem is the consequences of binge drinking and excessive drinking should not be accepted as “ritual” or common place. Some consequences are extremely problematic and not only impact the individual but have lasting consequences for the college environment in a global sense.
Some people think that schools should offer only nutritious drinks such as white milk, water, and natural fruit juice. Schools should not offer only nutritious drinks such as white milk, water, and natural fruit juice because, they should be able to drink what they want, you can’t tell someone what they can or can’t drink, it is not fair that they can’t choose what they want. The school needs to consider not only serving nutritious drinks cause some people might not like them. They need to have a variety of drinks.
College Students’ Exposure to Alcohol Drinking Drinking alcoholic beverages among college students is widely common nowadays in this generation. Several reasons can be recognized why students drink alcohol. According to the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence Inc, (2016), improving self-confidence, altering own identity (to adapt), curiosity, lack of parental advice, problems of daily living, running away from family dilemma, experiencing academic difficulty and other mental-related problems drive the teenagers to drink alcohol. Considering the reasons stated above, these can be some of the many ways how young people manage with their personal, emotional and social problems that they are experiencing.