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Alcohol problems on college campuses
Drinking alcohol in schools essay
Binge drinking on campuses essay
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In Beth McMurtrie’s article “Why Colleges Haven’t Stopped Binge Drinking”, colleges have been and are continuing to drop the ball when it comes to stopping binge drinking by college students. McMurtrie begins the article by explaining the impact that binge drinking has on the lives of students involved. Some colleges are beginning to overlook the problem completely. It appears that the whole problem has been purposely overlooked in many instances for many different reasons. There are those out there that believe that binge drinking and college life go hand in hand and that these that partake of such will get it under control when they are ready.
Are college Greek members more than likely to binge drink and use drugs? Ashlei N. Stevens wrote an article in 2011 titled, “Greek Members Are More Likely to Binge Drink and Use Drugs”. Ashlei Stevens is a writer for Spartanburg Herald-Journal, she has also written for the New York Times. According to Ashlei Stevens, binge drinking and drug abuse has become more prevalent throughout the Greek chapter on college campuses. Fraternity and sorority members are at times viewed as lively students known for their keg parties, and a recent study suggest this could be true.
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).
Should College Allow Drinking in Campus? In April 2002 The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism(NIAAA) published a report, updated in 2005, that suggests a strong relationship between alcohol and other drug abuse and variety of negative consequences of students who used alcohol and drug. The report estimates that each year 1,700 college students die from alcohol-related unintentional injuries, including motor vehicle crashes. In addition, it further estimates that alcohol is involved in 599,000 unintentional injuries, 696,000 assaults, and 79,000 cases of sexual assault and acquaintance rape among college students. According to a number of national surveys, about 40% of college and university students engage in heavy episodic
He states, “Most college kids spend more time drinking than studying. And they still get mostly A’s” (1). In other words, college students are spending their time developing a habit of drinking versus studying or learning. He also argues that the only way to solve this issue is by “implementing policies or guidelines” (2). It has taken a lot of effort from faculty and students to get rid of grade inflation, but schools such as Wellesley College and Reed College have been successful.
where there were parents and teachers present. She also talks about how in her days, learning to drink socially and responsibly was part of her college experience, and it was at least partially supervised. They had pubs on campus, and the bartender was paid by the school to serve, and he was also responsible to cut off students who are overdoing it. Supervised drinking on college campuses was done with faculty and staff, who could model the appropriate alcohol-related
Michael Mondelli Mrs. Wright English 12 Period 12 16 February 2017 Drinking Age Lowering the MLDA (minimum legal drinking age) would positively impact society. The rise of the MLDA might have prevented some issues but it created far more than it prevented.
Since then, the trend of binge drinking has come along in American colleges. Henry Wechsler and Toben Nelson, writers of the article Will Increasing Alcohol Availability By Lowering the Minimum Legal Drinking Age Decrease Drinking and Related Consequences Among Youths maintains that, “College students are more likely to engage in heavy drinking than their peers who do not attend college, with 2 in 5 students nationally engaging in binge drinking on at least 1 occasion in the past 2 weeks” (987). Binge drinking is defined as the consumption of five of more drinks in a row
A study done through Journal of American College Health found out that “many students overestimate the amount of alcohol their peers consume, and start drinking to the imaginary drinking level” (Carter). Incidents due to misconceptions are common. According to Bloomberg News “more than 60 people have died in fraternity-related incidents” (Friedman). To avoid problems like this, the Greek life itself or advisors/directors can organize “talk sessions”.
An argument many people make against banning alcohol is that if alcohol isn’t legal on campus, then students will go off campus. By going off campus they can drink to their hearts desire and they won’t be under supervision. They say that this also creates problems because now students aren’t under adult supervision and can, quite frankly, do what they please. Also people make the argument that colleges should spend more time on alcohol safety and proper use. Although colleges should provide these seminars for students on alcohol, they should also crack down on its usage.
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.
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.
One-fourth of college students admitted that drinking affected their performance in the classroom, resulting in poorer grades and attendance problems (Jones, Nazaryan, and Sarner 32). White and Hingson contend that “about 25 percent of college students report academic consequences of their drinking, including missing class, falling behind in class, doing poorly on exams or papers, and receiving lower grades overall” (201+). College should be a place to learn and gain friendships, but alcohol and drugs take students away from learning and create false relationships. Most students whose grades fall end up losing scholarships, thus having to spend more money to retake classes which could have been passed if alcohol and drugs were not an