SLOSHED ON CAMPUS THE ALL-WRONG RITE OF BINGE DRINGKING AMONGE COLLEGE
STUDENTS

Rites of passage vary from culture to culture, from primitive tests of
strength and survival quests to religious coming-of-age ceremonies and
parties where the young are "presented" as adults to the community at large.

On college campuses throughout the United States, a more mindless and
destructive practice - getting sloppy drunk on a regular basis - continues
to be accepted and passed off as a rite of passage. Despite highly
publicized alcohol poisoning fatalities, drunken driving deaths, date rapes
and assaults, the response to crackdowns on drinking has been for students
to drink more off campus or, as with students at Michigan and Washington
universities last spring, riot for the "right to party."

A disappointing follow-up to a landmark 1993 survey by the Harvard School
of Public Health has found that about two out of five college students in
1997 were binge drinkers - defined as drinking five drinks in a sitting for
men, and four for women.

The proportion of students surveyed at 116 colleges who said they "drank to
get drunk" jumped from 39% in 1993 to 52% in 1997. Perhaps most disturbing,
students who reported having been drunk three or more times within the
prior month increased from 22.9% in 1993 to 27.9% last year.

Fraternities and sororities continue to be havens for sloshed students;
both 1993 and 1997 studies found four out of five frat members were binge
drinkers. Along with the heavy drinking came poor judgment and dangerous
risk-taking. The percentage of students who said they had driven a car
after drinking since the school year began was up more than 4%, to 35.8%,
and 11.2% also admitted to having unprotected sex while drunk.

If campus culture is to be moved to the point where drinking oneself stupid
is itself considered stupid, parents, college communities, student leaders,
campus counselors and others must take the problem seriously and devise
approaches to educate and encourage responsible drinking. And perhaps those
students smart enough to stay sober could devise some alcohol-free rites of
passage.

Checked-by: Pat Dolan