Heavy Drinking Remains A Constant On College Campuses

Times may change, but some things stay the same -- and on college campuses, it's the presence of alcohol. New findings have emerged, however, in how alcohol consumption effects students.

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that incidences of heavy drinking among college students have been steady for 30 years.

The findings were relayed by George Mason University Center for the Advancement of Public Health Director David S. Anderson at the ACPA-College Student Educators conference in Baltimore this month.

According to a recent survey, alcohol has emerged as a more significant factor in cases of campus sexual assault and violence since 1994. Anderson also reported that more colleges are changing their tack when it comes to dealing with alcohol on campus, implementing prohibitive policies rather than exploratory, awareness-based events.

What's more, according to George Mason researcher Todd Wyatt, alcohol trumps Facebook, outside jobs and class attendance as a predictive factor in a student's academic performance.

Inside Higher Ed has more on Wyatt's interesting findings:

In his study, which surveyed about 13,900 incoming freshmen at 167 colleges and universities who were also taking the AlcoholEDU freshman survey, Wyatt did find some variation in how students' pastimes affect different individuals. For one thing, he found that students who drink and also volunteer or participate in other activities are less likely than their peers who drink and don't engage in such activities to experience negative consequences from drinking, such as performing poorly on assignments, missing class or work, or hurting their friends or themselves. "They're not drinking less, they're just drinking smarter," Wyatt said.

What do you think of these revelations? Are you 'drinking smarter'? How big of a problem is drinking on your campus? Weigh in below.

Comments

[Fennis]

02:51 AM on 04/01/2011

Someone has a very firm grasp of the obvious.

[ackezzy]

07:03 AM on 03/31/2011

Drinking and college?!? This article sounds far fecthed

[hershobr]

06:51 AM on 03/31/2011

"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."- Benjamin Franklin

[Fran Jaime]

12:49 AM on 03/31/2011

To quote the Beastie Boys: "You gotta fight/ for your right/ to partttttttttttyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!"

[Robert Blackburn]

03:12 PM on 03/30/2011

Someday we'll understand fully why the alternate reality provided by drinking is so attractive to the young and old alike. See: RevolutionOfReason.com and YouTube: RobertLBlackburn

[hershobr]

06:50 AM on 03/31/2011

Sounds like you've never drank.

[Lloyd Pinchback]

02:04 PM on 03/30/2011

Heavy drinking on college campuses has been a problem for decades, surely. And the recent report may not be breaking news to most; however, I do see a potentially new issue to consider respective of continued heavy drinking on campus. Some state legislatures, Texas being one, are proposing laws to allow loaded firearms on college campuses, to include classrooms. Surely every adult human should know that loaded guns and alcohol do not mix well, but to encourage such an idea through legislation is simply grossly irresponsible. As if “drinking on college campuses” by itself is not enough to alter the rational thinking of impressionable, curious young men and women participating in real life and adult situations for the first time in their lives, consider the potential dangers that could result if a loaded weapon is brought to class. Nothing could be more dangerous on a college campus as a drunken or confused young college student with a loaded gun.

Sometimes the very rigors of college life generally can cause a student to “freak out”, if only temporarily. My point being, why would any rational adult legislate to create yet another potential hazard for all attending college students? But it’s clear to me that if the GOP-led Texas legislature actually does pass this bill, there aren’t any rational right-wing adults in the Texas legislature. Whereas most would find the idea reprehensable, a complete no-brainer, the Texas bunch would embrace it as they would a warm, cuddly puppy.

[MilesLong]

03:31 PM on 03/30/2011

Perhaps it's a matter of making the college campus experience so unattractive and dangerous that enrollment declines.

Ever since Nixon declared war on the intelligentsia because the anti-war movement was born on high school and college campuses, the Republican Party's commitment to post-secondary education has steadily declined year after year. Their position is that a college education is only for the moneyed elite.

Putting guns on campus would also favor the wealthier students, especially so when a reasonable good hand weapon averages over $500.

To believe that students must be the front line defense against school shootings makes no real sense given age, maturity, possible impairment from all sorts of causes, etc.

So, what's the REAL reason legislators are pushing so hard for firearms on campus?

Miles "Collegiate OK Corral" Long

[Lloyd Pinchback]

12:40 PM on 03/31/2011

Miles, I thought you’d never ask LOL. I do have a theory. As it is well known that the GOP has vowed to see President Obama “fail” as POTUS, several points of reference respective of a Republican right-wing strategy to help accomplish that goal is apparent to the open eye.

1) VOTER SUPPRESSIO­N: If attention is paid, one will notice how some states are maneuverin­g to cage voters - especially the black/brow­n vote - by proposing new restrictio­ns on college-ag­ed students’ use of their college IDs as legitimate documents enabling them to register to vote. In short, there’s an effort by GOP legislator­s to limit the number of college-ag­ed voters for the 2012 election - period. And we know why.

2) DISMANTLIN­G THE DEMOCRATIC FUND-RAISI­NG BASE: The union-bust­ing measures being proposed and/or implemente­d in Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Texas, etc. are all part of the effort to achieve the GOP’s ultimate goal: Obama’s failure. As the right-wing groups like Citizens United, The Koch Brothers, and other corporate interests flood the GOP coffers with cash, the named states are implementi­ng laws to “ban” forever collective bargaining contracts, as well as destroying the biggest source of Democratic fund-raisi­ng: the service unions.

[Lloyd Pinchback]

12:42 PM on 03/31/2011

To continue ...

3) “NO-BAMA ZONES”: As Texas legislators position themselves to sign the “conceal & carry” law, they are also creating “No-Bama Zones” on Texas college campuses. It seems innocent enough but consider the up-coming 2012 campaign season. On those campuses in Texas and other states proposing similar conceal & carry legislation, President Obama could not appear without a risk to his life. In essence, Texas is saying, “Mr. Obama is NOT welcomed on Texas college campuses!” Whether the unthinkable actually occurs or not, that message is out there and symbolic of what could happen should he appear.

These are just a few measures the GO/Tea Party advocates are engaged in to see to it that President Obama serves only one term in the Oval Office.

[liberalpolicysucks]

09:38 PM on 03/30/2011

Have you even read the bill?

surely, every adult human knows that a majority of campuses are dry.

Surely anyone who even read the law, or knows anything about concealed carry knows that if you go to the trouble of getting a license, you are not going to carry it with you when you go drinking (you get in deep, deep sh*t if you do)

So if you are experiencing college & real life situations for the first time in your life, that puts you at 18 or 19. WHICH MAKES YOU INELIGIBLE TO GET A CONCEALED CARRY PERMIT

and a majority of the drinking takes place off campus, so you have the risk of having a gun there...

[Fran Jaime]

12:43 AM on 03/31/2011

You are seriously saying that people don't drink on dry campuses? (Sigh) Whatever!

[Mars22]

09:51 AM on 03/31/2011

"surely, every adult human knows that a majority of campuses are dry."

Do you have statistics on this? And did you go to college in the U.S? In my experience, college campuses in the U.S. are less "dry" and more "don't ask don't tell." And anyway we cannot assume that most drinking takes place off campus for underage students. Nor can we assume that owning a gun means you will always make responsible decisions.

[KIVPossum]

01:20 PM on 03/30/2011

When I was in college we drank morning, noon, and night. Only then we didn't feel the need to get soused and attack a woman or get into a fight.

[Joshua Chou]

01:08 PM on 03/30/2011

And in other news the sky is Blue (unless you live in LA or Beijing)

[John Stopple]

12:33 PM on 03/30/2011

I actually worry about this long term with the fact that we are on our global "competitiveness" kick, which translates into lengthening the school year and overtesting 8 year olds. We wind the contemporary student up from about Kindergarten, don't teach them how to cope with the stress, then act all shocked when they get alcohol poisoning in college.

[Cooltoad]

01:05 PM on 03/30/2011

the drinking binges have got nothing to do with stress gone wild. You remember what college was like (unless you were in there in the 60's or 70's). Everyone yields to even the slightest peer pressure, its called trying to fit in. Sometimes you try too hard and then things happen.

[John Stopple]

01:26 PM on 03/30/2011

I was there in the '90s and stress was one of THE PRIME EXCUSES for binge drinking. I know people that were seriously drinking too much with no social motive (i.e. solitary binge drinking).

Generally overstressing people for years and years and then taking the restraints away is not a good idea.

[EndTheGOP]

12:22 PM on 03/30/2011

In my college days in the mid 80's, I was literally stunned by the rampant alcoholism at several Florida colleges, including UF, FSU, USF. In agreement with the article, I don't expect there has been any reduction in that abuse through today. I'd love to see a study that could tie that alcohol abuse to larger societal trends.

[Joshua Chou]

01:09 PM on 03/30/2011

Glad you put my alma mater USF on the list!

[EndTheGOP]

02:33 PM on 03/30/2011

USF was a pretty good place overall. The alcohol seemed to flow more at UF and FSU, whereas USF back then was more of a commuter school with less university housing.

[kyeshinka]

12:21 PM on 03/30/2011

Not surprisingly, stricter punishments has had NO effect on drinking, just more distrust of those in authority. Things have changed, except the levels of drinking. Getting caught with a beer in your dorm room on some campuses leads to a $300 fine; 10 years ago you could have a beer with the resident assistant. The drinking age everywhere is 21, and yet more people are drinking uncontrollably? How can that be!? We should have learned these lessons from Prohibition; make alcohol more illegal and more of a guilty pleasure, more people will drink it. The War on Drugs is the same thing. But this country loves punishing young people too much to allow for common-sense approaches. More fines, more jail, more records. That's how the Land of the Free deals with anything anymore.
I encourage all young people who enjoy drinking to drink responsibly, regardless of age, and don't abide by the numerous laws that try to make your life as miserable as possible. As Americans, you should deserve at least a fracation of the freedom your European peers have. If more and more people did it, those police state thugs in charge would change it.

[matandch]

01:00 PM on 03/30/2011

Unfortunately jail has become the generic solution to many of our social ills. From alcoholism, the war on drugs to mental illness, it's become the generic institution with little or no attempt to treat the individual's problems.

[Cooltoad]

01:06 PM on 03/30/2011

Hear Hear.

[Micah McCoy]

11:54 AM on 03/30/2011

I think the distinction between students who drink heavily while remaining engaged in other activities versus the kids who made partying their sole extra-curricular event is spot on. Looking back at the guys in my college fraternity, we all drank an unhealthy and obscene amount of alcohol...and had a terrific time doing it. However, it was the guys who also were involved in volunteering, theater, choir, chapel, etc. that had the best grades and managed their lives in the most responsible manner. However, the guys who did nothing but drink ended up failing out or nearly just squeaking by, wasting many of the opportunities for personal growth that college offers. So yes, kiddos, if you gotta drink heavily, drink smart and make sure you maintain your other interests and activities.

[donaldinks]

12:45 PM on 03/30/2011

You can't be more HONEST than that!
Been there and done it all!
At the age of 60...
wouldn't do anything different.
Loved your post!

[Guscat]

01:25 PM on 03/30/2011

First fan. Your point was true in the 60's and is true today.

[FZliveson]

11:53 AM on 03/30/2011

Studies reveal that alcohol is far more successful than self-administered shock treatment or amateur frontal lobotomies.

[HeadAches]

11:52 AM on 03/30/2011

Now, I was a student at the University of Oslo, Norway from 1977 and onward and unlike US colleges, we had several bars and restaurants serving alcohol on campus, including a convenience store which sold beer by crates of 24 bottles of pilsner!

I had a seat in a small study hall in one of the mathematics institutes buildings and each Friday, we scrambled for money and bought a crate with beer after lunch and had a cold one while studying.

Of course - we do not have such an insane drinking age as the US does so it is of course legal.

This is once again an example of Americans being treated as kids until they are well into their twenties.