Binge drinking on
college campuses:
A new approach to an old problem

The incidents at the Louisiana State University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in which undergraduate students died of an overdose of alcohol are tragic examples of how binge drinking on college campuses has now reached alarming proportions. The fact that at LSU nearly 20 other students in the same fraternity house were found unconscious due to alcohol overdoses only demonstrates the extensiveness of the problem.

Nationwide, college presidents view student alcohol abuse as the number one campus-life problem. A 1993 study by the Harvard School of Public Health found that nearly half (44%) of all college students were binge drinkers and 19% were frequent binge drinkers (binged three or more times in a two-week period of time). Binge drinking was defined as five or more drinks in a row for men and four or more drinks in a row for women. Research about the impact of alcohol use clearly demonstrates that this is the level of drinking at which individuals begin to report serious alcohol-related health and behavior problems that affect them personally as well as others in their environment. In reality, many of the students who participated in this national study reported drinking alcohol at even higher levels, often with the specific intention of getting drunk.

At the University of Delaware, significant efforts began in the spring of 1995 to address the problems associated with the binge drinking of students on the campus and in the City of Newark. A year later, the University was selected as one of four institutions nationally to receive a five-year, $700,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to develop innovative ways of reducing binge drinking among college students. A Campus/Community Coalition has been formed that has three primary goals: (1) to reduce the excessive and abusive use of alcohol on campus and in the community; (2) to change the student culture pertaining to alcohol use and abuse, as well as the environment that supports and sustains it; and (3) to conduct on-going assessments of student attitudes and behaviors regarding alcohol. It is important to understand that binge drinking is not a new occurrence on college and university campuses. However, it is time to develop new approaches to the problem and the University of Delaware and the City of Newark are attempting to be national leaders in that regard.

The fact is that many students freely admit that they fit the definition of a binge drinker, but they do not regard it as a real problem in their lives. Most students who are frequent binge drinkers, however, do admit that they pay a price for drinking. That is, they may develop hangovers, do something that they regret later, miss classes, or forget where they were or what they did when under the influence of alcohol. Others report falling behind in academic assignments, arguing with friends, engaging in unplanned sexual activity, etc. So, the argument goes, why should the University concern itself with these behaviors since they reflect choices individuals may make themselves, with the consequences applying only to themselves?

The answer is that it is no longer possible to view binge drinking as solely the problem of the person who is doing the drinking because the consequences often affect other people. The rest of the larger community is paying too steep a price for the irresponsible actions of binge drinkers. On the University of Delaware campus, most of the physical and sexual assaults, accidental injuries or fatalities, much of the property damage, and a wide variety of other disruptions that occur in the lives of students and residents of the City of Newark are alcohol-related.

The vast majority of students who live on campus have experienced one or more problems as a result of the binge drinking done by other people. In short, alcohol often has a negative impact on people who do not themselves abuse it, in much the same way that cigarette smoke has the potential to harm non-smokers as well as those who choose to smoke.

The University of Delaware and the City of Newark have combined forces to cooperatively develop strategies making binge drinking a public health issue.

A wide variety of individuals and problem-solvers on the campus and from the community have taken an active role in this effort. It is not our intent to bring back a form of prohibition of alcohol or to take a stance that would suggest that the use of alcohol is morally incorrect. Instead, our goal is to have the students who choose to use alcohol do so legally and in a responsible fashion that is respectful of the community in which we all live. Our goal is to make drunkenness an unacceptable excuse or alibi for violent and disruptive behavior that violates the rights of other students and the citizens of Newark, and have those students who have been negatively affected by binge drinkers feel empowered to speak up without feeling humiliated. Our goal is to have students recognize how a television commercial that has been produced by an alcohol manufacturer glamorizes the use of alcohol in a way that may be pure fantasy when compared to the every day realities of being a college student. Our goal is to challenge the business community in Newark when it purposefully creates an environment in which binge drinking is encouraged or sustained.

To change a student culture in which heavy drinking is not only a component, but often a goal, is a daunting task. In fact, local research data indicates that some students in New Castle County begin to engage in binge drinking in grade school. Still, it was once thought that drunk drivers were just a part of life and that smokers had the right to smoke anywhere and any time they chose to do so. Today, people are much more likely to speak out against drunk drivers and smokers because we now know the harm they cause others is not an acceptable price to pay for their behavior.

To be successful, the project at the University of Delaware will depend upon the willingness of students to voice their disapproval of binge drinking when it adversely affects their lives and their community. It will also depend upon the University and the City of Newark holding students, student organizations, and local business enterprises accountable for their role in providing an environment in which binge drinking is viewed as not only acceptable, but desirable.

Efforts already are under way to significantly increase student and public support for alcohol-use policies that can be effectively implemented and vigorously enforced.

Hopefully, it will no longer be comfortable or convenient for anyone to view alcohol abuse as an acceptable or inevitable part of our community when it is so clearly associated with tragic consequences and with behaviors we otherwise say we oppose.