MEDIA BINGE DISTORTS CAMPUS DRINKING

The media missed the big story on college campuses across the country last
month. It was right there under their noses, but it got washed away by the
release of the latest study of drinking behavior at colleges and
universities. In the wake of that study, headlines blared: "Students
majoring in drunkenness 101," and "Hitting the bar, not the books,"
painting a bleak picture of colleges across the country.

Admittedly, the numbers behind those headlines are cause for concern. That
drinking on college campuses is a problem is without question.

However, overlooked amid all the hand-wringing and alarm caused by the
study was an important bit of good news: A majority of students--more than
60 percent--do not engage in binge drinking.

In fact, it would have been equally accurate for the media to have
reported: "College student binge drinking hits record low," or "College
student use of alcohol hits all-time low."

Both statements are true, according to the latest data available from an
ongoing study by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Their research shows
that binge drinking reached its highest point in 1986 at 45 percent, and it
has declined every year since 1992, dipping to about 37 percent in 1997. At
the same time, the number of students reporting that they do not use
alcohol has increased for six straight years, topping out at 17 percent in
1997, an all-time high for the study, according to NIDA.

Such information isn't as eye-catching, however, as that splashed on front
pages across the country last month. It also isn't nearly as useful to
politicians looking to scare up votes by jumping on the issue, or to those
who treat college drinking--too much success can be bad for a budget.

This fascination with the negative side of the college drinking equation,
however, is doing nothing to improve the situation. In fact, it contributes
to the problem. Proclaiming to the world that the nation's campuses are
awash in alcohol reinforces the popular--but wrong--stereotype that the
typical college experience is a scene straight out of "Animal House." It
reinforces such behavior by creating the mistaken notion that "everyone is
doing it."

At Northern Illinois University we made a choice 10 years ago to abandon
scare tactics and hardnosed bans. Instead, we developed a mass media
campaign to let our students know that, of their peers who choose to drink,
most do so responsibly. We have highlighted the fact that drinking in
moderation (if at all) is the norm, and that those who engage in binge
drinking are actually in the minority.

How well has it worked? Over the last 10 years, while binge drinking
nationwide has declined 12 percent, at Northern Illinois University we have
seen a decline of 44 percent. As other schools embrace what has become
known as "The NIU Model," that success has been duplicated. The University
of Arizona has seen a 26 percent reduction in binge drinking over the past
three years; Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, N.Y., have seen a
decrease of 12 percent over two years, and Western Washington University
recorded an 8 percent decline over the past year.

Encouraged by those results, the state of Kansas recently announced that it
will spend $1.5 million to implement the program at three of its
universities next year, and the state of Montana is launching a pilot
program that will employ a similar approach to curb drunk driving among
young adults.

We are not naive enough to believe that the NIU model will solve all of the
drinking problems on every campus. However, it does appear to be working
better than the traditional methods used to little effect at so many
schools, and certainly better than the hardline crackdowns that led to
rioting on some campuses last year. Sadly, last month's headlines are
likely to stimulate more of the same old behavior, despite the long history
of failure associated with those methods.

There is plenty of good news about the drinking behavior of college
students today, but it's the best kept secret in the country.
Unfortunately, keeping that secret isn't helping anything, and it may make
matters worse.

Michael Haines is coordinator of health-enhancement services at Northern
Illinois University.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski