The Benefits Of Underage Drinking

Underage drinking is common on college campuses around the country. Almost every school has some kind of alcohol culture on campus and even campuses that claim to be dry have drinking. It is the job of the college to provide students with a safe environment to grow and learn, and by allowing students to drink the school is doing exactly the opposite. Carleton’s drinking policy is very open to underage drinking and the policy is hardly ever enforced. Carleton’s policy states, “In a civil, safe, and healthy community, members take responsibility for their own actions, and consider the impact that their choices will have on others. All members have a duty to accept their obligations to the group, and to act for the common good.” Carleton

By creating an open drinking culture, Carleton is creating many dangerous situations for its students. First, fewer regulations means more drinking. According to Dean Govoni in a 2004 interview, “80-85% of students drink” which is incredibly high. What is even more disturbing is around half of the student population binge drinks according to a Harvard study. Binge drinking involves drinking at a very fast rate in order to get drunk which clearly can be incredibly dangerous, especially for inexperienced drinkers. Carleton relies on personal responsibility heavily but also provides many regulations meant to keep students safe. It has also been shown that alcohol is a leading cause of sexual assaults on college campuses. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, “researchers consistently have found that approximately one-half of all sexual assaults are committed by men who have been drinking alcohol” and “approximately one-half of all sexual assault victims report that they were drinking alcohol at the time of the assault.” Alcohol and sexual assault are clearly connected so having an open policy can also lead to an increase in sexual assault cases on campus. Once again Carleton is putting students in danger by letting them drinking without any kind of punishment.

A school can have a perfect policy, but if they neglect to enforce it, the policy becomes useless. Ultimately, this is Carleton’s biggest problem. If the administration at Carleton were to seriously consider how to decrease alcohol consumption they would not have to adjust much in their policy. While the administration has put in place many useful policies with the purpose of keeping students safe, they fail to adequately enforce them. Thus, they are leaving students vulnerable to the dangers of drinking when the school could easily protect them. Without action, Carleton’s alcohol policy is simply words on a