COLLOQUY

THE QUESTION

RESPONSES

BACKGROUND

The blame is widespread; for example:

- Some colleges and universities are partially to blame for not taking a tough enough or a public enough stance on the issue. Or not being willing to invest themselves fully in the issue, in spite of the documented evidence of the negative consequences alcohol can have on our students.

- Some faculty and staff are partially to blame for not being willing to consider themselves part of the solution. "It's not my job!" is the resounding cry. In fact, addressing the needs of our students is all of our jobs, from the president of the university to maintenance and support staff. One office or employee on an entire campus can not do the work; all must be involved. And if we're not willing to be part of the solution, then we're only making the problem worse.

- Some resident assistants, judicial affairs officers, public safety and local police are partially to blame by being inconsistent in their enforcement of the policy or the law. This could be due to a variety of factors, but needs to be addressed so students know what to expect in terms of actions and the resulting conseqences.

- Some bars are partially to blame for perpetuating the alcohol culture around campuses with their cheap specials and catering to the perceived desires of the students. And also by allowing minors into their establishments and by allowing obviously intoxicated patrons to continue to drink.

- Some parents are partially to blame for neglecting to consider the potential role alcohol could play in their son or daughter's life while they are in college. Some even put blinders on and claim, "My child won't have any problem with this; they don't drink." The fact is, most students will have some sort of experience with alcohol during college, and most of it will be their own use or abuse...not that of others. Parents need to talk about it with their children, long before they ever come to campus.

- Some students are partially to blame for allowing the peer pressure and perceived norms surrounding drinking to impact their own decisions and behaviors. But considering the developmental level of many of our students, perhaps a bit of learning from their own mistakes is an appropriate lesson for them to learn.

- Greek organizations are partially to blame as well, especially when a chapter is not willing to relinquish a "tradition" no matter how harmful it is to the individual, the chapter, the school, or the national organization. Chapters need to be willing to take a difficult stance and not allow alcohol to be part of their social activities in their houses anymore, most particularly for underage and inexperienced pledges.

- Society in general, and the media in particular, is partially to blame for continuing to glamorize a drug that can have potentially harmful or even fatal results. Not to destroy anyone's livelihood, but the alcohol industries marketing practices deserve careful attention, particularly in how alcohol is marketed to young people (and several brewers do take the initiative to do this, so kudos to them.)

But above all, I think we need to be conscious of the fact that not all students are going to live by the "party 'til you puke" mentality. The majority of our students are making healthy choices for themselves contrary to the popular perception that "everybody drinks". Many students who do choose to drink aren't doing so abusively, yet they get lumped in with the numbers of students who are experiencing the worst of the negative consequences.

One mission colleges and universities should put forth for themselves is to make every attempt to empower these healthy students by providing them the activities and resources needed to maintain this difficult choice. If we spend every moment of our time focusing on the small number of students who are problematic, those students who are healthy will suffer just as much.

Several campuses have created very successful social marketing campaigns which address these harmful behaviors our students are engaging in by striving to change their perceptions of the norms. Shift the norms, shift the behavior.

Perhaps more of us should look to these campuses as models of how to address a difficult problem and how to use the full resources available on campus and in the community to combat the negative consequences arising from alcohol abuse. Maybe then this debate becomes a moot point and we can spend our time focusing on what is most important -- the education and development of our students, not on their drinking habits and the consequences thereof.

-- Lisa Currie, Asst. Wellness Director, the University of Scranton (posted 11/3, 10:07 a.m., E.S.T.)

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