MORE STUDENTS ABSTAINING FROM ALCOHOL, STUDY FINDS, BUT MORE ALSO DRINKING
HEAVILY

More college students are saying No to alcohol than did five years ago, but
of those who don't abstain, more are drinking "to get drunk," according to
a survey released Thursday by the Harvard University School of Public Health.

The report, published in this month's issue of the Journal of American
College Health, is a follow-up to a much-cited 1993 study of college
drinking, which prompted many institutions to re-evaluate their alcohol
policies.

The new findings are based on the responses of 14,521 students at 116
colleges who were surveyed in the spring of 1997.

Nineteen per cent of the students said they abstained from alcohol, up from
15.6 per cent in 1993. Of the students who did drink, the proportion who
said they had been drunk at least three times in the month preceding the
survey rose from 22.9 per cent to 27.9 per cent. And among those who drink,
52 per cent said a major reason to do so was "to get drunk," up from 39 per
cent in 1993.

The drinkers also experienced more alcohol-related problems in 1997, such
as driving while intoxicated and missing classes.

Henry Wechsler, director of College Alcohol Studies at Harvard's
public-health school, who led the project, was dismayed by the findings.
"Colleges are still not fully committed to dealing with this problem," he
said. "They are searching for simple solutions, but there is no single
solution that's going to solve something that's been there for so long and
is so widespread."

The higher-education community made its latest attempt to deal with the
problem last week. At a press conference here at Georgetown University, a
coalition of more than 20 higher-education associations outlined several
strategies -- calling them "a new kind of six-pack" -- to help parents,
students, and colleges combat dangerous drinking.

"Too many students who are getting the best education that money can buy
haven't learned a basic lesson: Heavy drinking is disruptive, dangerous,
and potentially deadly," said Richard W. Riley, the U.S. Secretary of
Education, at the meeting. "We need to change a culture that has made
drinking in excess a cool thing to do, when it is anything but cool."

The coalition suggested that parents talk to their children about the
dangers of "competitive drinking" and the legal consequences of having
false identification.

Students should become involved in alcohol-free activities on the campuses,
and colleges should promote such activities as well as peer-education
programs, the group said. Students should also learn the signs of alcohol
poisoning, it added.

If those tips seem basic -- or, indeed, already the norm on many campuses
- -- organizers said it was best to take nothing for granted.

"One thing that amazes me is that parents still do not talk to students
about the types of things that go on on college campuses and how to say
No," said Nancy Schulte, coordinator of drug-education services at George
Mason University and one of the organizers of the coalition.

Mr. Wechsler said the number of abstainers in the Harvard study offered a
"glimmer of hope."

"Abstainers may be responding to alcohol-education efforts, or they may
simply be repulsed by the binge-drinking way of life," he said.

Over all, the researchers found, the proportion of binge drinkers dropped
slightly. About 43 per cent of the respondents ha binged at least once in
the two weeks preceding the survey, compared with 44 per cent in 1993. But
more minority students, particularly Asian Americans, said they had binged.
Binge drinking was defined as five or more drinks at a sitting for men, and
four or more for women.

The drinking study is available on the Harvard School of Public Health's
World-Wide Web site, at http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/cas

Copyright 1998 by The Chronicle of Higher Education

Checked-by: Pat Dolan