BEER -- OFTEN LOTS OF IT -- SLICKS SOCIAL LIFE AMONG STUDENTS

Children in our local public schools eagerly await it, while suntanned UW
students mourned its passing with glum faces in classes last week. Spring
break. I too became a "snow bird'' this year, flying away from the dirty
white piles flanking our roads in search of some Southern warmth.

Yet my most vivid memory has nothing to do with a favorable climate. It is
the sight of a black and white metal plaque affixed to the French doors in
my hotel room. The sign informed me that it is illegal to throw objects from
the balcony, and officiously specified the relevant Florida statute.

"Uh-oh,'' I thought, dutifully pointing out the notice to my 9-year-old.
"The hotel management must have some very real concerns about badly behaved
kids.''

The sign took on quite a different meaning a half hour later, however. Newly
ensconced in a lounger by the pool, I found myself watching four young men
standing on a balcony about 10 stories above me pouring beer over the
rail -- and into the open mouths of a group of young women leaning backwards
over the balcony rail of a room a half dozen stories below.

The appeal of alcohol to college-age kids is a familiar concern on many
campuses, including UW-Madison. Yet I had never appreciated its role as a
relationship facilitator until confronted with that dramatic visual of a
stream of beer physically connecting members of the opposite sex.

If the lives of many young adults aren't to topple from risky drinking, I
believe it is urgent that all of us who care about their welfare gain a
better understanding of their misperceptions of alcohol in the context of
relationships. For example, exactly how does drinking feature in "play'' and
in social and sexual rituals?

An exploratory survey on binge drinking conducted in support of the Robert
Wood Johnson Project on campus suggested that students drink in order to be
social and to meet new people. While the students surveyed maintained that
they only occasionally drank in order to find a date or to have sex, binge
drinkers admitted to those motivations significantly more often than
non-binge drinkers. (These aren't motivations that one shares freely in a
questionnaire.)

To the extent that the perception is accurate that drinkers are more likely
to have sex, strategies that attempt to substitute non-alcohol-related
social activities for alcohol-based "hooking up'' may fail.

The initial survey indicated that approximately three quarters of binge
drinkers are male, and so a key question concerns whether these young men
are indeed more sexually active than non-binge counterparts. The answer is
not evident.

When we consider the older male, a generous measure of his favorite tipple
is more likely to produce solitary snores than an amorous adventure. Alcohol
consumption tends to threaten mature sexual performance. But in the case of
young men, just how much is too much?

I remember many years ago listening to a presentation by a brewery executive
on the market changes experienced by the alcohol industry as the number of
males 18-29 shrank dramatically with the aging of the baby boomers. Young
men in that age range drink such a large volume of beer that, provided they
exist in boom numbers, they become the most important segment of the
beer-drinking market. Once they hit 30, though, they suffer from a
diminished capacity to glug 12-ounce can after 12-ounce can without
experiencing nausea. Suddenly a mellow glass of wine, sipped and savored,
has appeal.

Since youths are able to consume more alcohol without becoming ill than are
mature men, perhaps they are also able to consume a greater quantity of
alcohol without losing sexual interest or capacity. In other words, the
perception that alcohol facilitates access to sexual relations may not be a
misperception. Perhaps it enhances sexual motivation without physical
impairment.

Rob Adsit's team of staffers on the Robert Wood Johnson Project is doing an
excellent job of providing opportunities for students to interact at night
in an alcohol-free but fun environment. For example, from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m.
every Thursday this semester, alcohol-free social events are held at the
South East Recreational Facility (SERF) on campus. Local businesses have
been wonderfully supportive of this endeavor to curb excessive drinking,
donating food and door prizes.

Providing such opportunities for social interaction is key. A crucial
subsequent step involves assessing whether imbibing alcohol, as an
alternative to attending such functions, does more than make it easier to
create opportunities to interact. Once the opportunity is there, what does
alcohol contribute to "hooking up''? How does it change the nature of the
interaction?

Professor Linda Roberts in the UW-School of Human Ecology is an expert on
the impact of alcohol on relationships: "Many of the effects that alcohol
has on our social behavior are psychological. Alcohol acts on our bodies as
a depressant; physiologically our sexual responsiveness is dampened, not
enhanced, by drinking.

"Yet most individuals believe that alcohol enhances sex -- and so it can.
For example, in experimental studies, men who believe they have consumed
alcohol when they haven't become more aroused watching sexually explicit
films than men who know they have consumed a non-alcoholic beverage. So
drinking may in fact heighten sexual arousal, but the effect seems to be
psychological, not physical.''

During my visit to Florida, I stayed at a respectable luxury resort. The
college students did not disrupt the other guests, to my knowledge. They
smiled with open faces when they passed me in the corridors, and leaped to
return my son's ball when it strayed into their environment. Their main
focus was understandably on having fun.

Having fun meant carrying large coolers filled with beer down to the beach,
where they played volleyball and lounged in the sun. Then during the late
afternoon and evening, they took over the hot tubs where they sat in joyful
groups of mixed genders, sharing smokes and drinking from gigantic plastic
cups.

I thought they were nice kids. I just wished they weren't drunk kids.

Jacqueline C. Hitchon is an associate professor in the UW-Madison Department
of Agricultural Journalism.