DRINKING TALES MAY REACH HOME

TAMPA - Florida universities may fight substance abuse by underage students
the old-fashioned way: telling Mom and Dad.

College students who want to use drugs or alcohol will do so regardless of
their age.

That's true anywhere, though perhaps nowhere more so than Florida - where
the two best-known universities, Florida State and the University of
Florida, recently claimed the dubious honor of ranking No. 1 and No. 2,
respectively, as the nation's top ``party schools,'' according to the
Princeton Review.

But by next year, underage drinking at Florida's 10 public universities may
force students to face the music beyond campus.

The schools are poised to notify parents or guardians when underage,
legally dependent students are caught in alcohol-or narcotics-related
offenses.

A notification policy will be proposed this week to the university system's
governing Board of Regents, and approval is expected. Each school then
would be obligated to adopt one.

The move was being discussed before the Princeton Review rankings and the
two are unrelated, a regents spokesman said last week.

It was proposed in May by Steven Uhlfelder, a Tallahassee regent who has
highlighted the issue of student drinking.

``I think alcohol has always been used on campuses. I don't think this is a
new problem,'' Uhlfelder said. ``What I think has changed is excessive or
binge drinking. ... We need to make sure students understand how serious
this is.''

Some parents of underage college students welcome the policy.

``I would be for it,'' said Becky Belanger, the Tampa mother of a UF
sophomore. ``You send your child away at 18, and you have no clue what
they're doing up there.''

The proposal would affect only a fraction of students, largely because many
Floridians choose to work before going to college. In fall 1997, the latest
year for which numbers are available, fewer than 61,500 of the university
system's almost 213,100 students were 21 or younger. Only about 40,000 were
claimed as dependents by parents or guardians.

Policies might differ among schools. The University of South Florida, for
instance, is proposing parental notification for a first alcohol or
narcotics offense. Others might choose to link notification to a major
first offense or to withhold it until a student violates school policy for
a second or third time.

Each university already has substance-abuse counseling and education
programs for students, said regents spokesman Keith Goldschmidt. And
alcohol on campus is not a new or growing problem.

But, as Uhlfelder said, educators increasingly are concerned with binge
drinking. That's defined as a minimum of five drinks in one sitting for men
and four for women.

A 1997 Harvard University survey of 14,521 students at 116 colleges found
nearly 43 percent (which translates into roughly 3 million students
nationwide) engaged in binge drinking. One in five reported drinking
excessively at least three times in the 14 days prior to the survey.

Other studies have linked heavy drinking to campus crimes, from petty theft
and property damage to sexual assault.

``We're asking that universities adopt policies that tell parents what
their children are doing,'' Uhlfelder said. ``It's not punitive.''