Last September, five new college freshmen in various colleges around the country died from binge drinking.
There’s nothing like the excitement of moving away to college. The kid spent half of his junior year and all of his senior year of high school filling out forms and writing essays and visiting colleges trying to decide “what to do with my life” and where to attend. His parents either helped him find aid or ponied up the savings to pay for the first semester. They shopped to buy extra-long sheets for the dorm bed and all the little necessities of living “sort of” on one’s own for the first time. They had conflicted feelings – on the one hand a chick was leaving the nest; on the other hand, the “chick” was so eager to go that he had probably made life difficult during the last summer, and so it was a mixture of sadness and relief when the parents helped carry most of his worldly goods into the tiny dorm room.
Handshakes and hugs and off they went, and he was ready to be “a college student.” Within a week he’d been offered a drink in a friend’s room and he was ready to attend one of the famous wild parties which were only legends before now. He went to a party and drank more than five drinks in an hour (which is the definition of binge drinking) and at some point he passed out. He was dead on arrival at the hospital.
So much for all the hopes and plans and hard work in high school and money saved. He didn’t really intend to die that night. He probably drank it on a dare.
Universities all over the country are trying to delete scenes like these from the upcoming school years, and one of the methods adopted for Fall 2011 at the University of North Alabama is an online self-assessment “to help the university better educate students about the effects of drinking alcohol.” It requires the new students to honestly log in and express their attitudes and behavior regarding alcohol consumption.
Hmmm. Maybe it ought to ask the roommates and dorm-daddies to do so instead. Do they really think that the students are going to honestly tell about all the illegal stuff they are doing, even if it is anonymous? They don’t think that the students will be wary enough and uncaring enough that they will lie about it?
Dr. Kim Greenway, director of Student Conduct, Planning and Assessment, says "It will give us a true picture of alcohol use on campus and the perceptions that are out there," she said. "We will be able to use that data as an educational tool to know how to better reach our students."
We already know that 46% of college students think that drinking alcohol is part of the rite of passage of attending college. Maybe these assessments are going to improve on the statistical knowledge. Maybe the fact that they have info in them that discourages drinking is the real point of taking them. Let’s hope it’s worth the effort.
