COLLEGE DRINKING DIPS SLIGHTLY

Study: Despite Education, Discipline Efforts, 42.7% Still Binge.

BOSTON -- A sequel to a landmark national study of binge drinking
among college students has found that despite efforts at education and
discipline, binge drinking around campuses dropped just slightly
between 1993 and 1997, Harvard researchers said Thursday.

The Harvard School of Public Health's College Alcohol Study found in
1997 that about two out of five students -- 42.7 percent -- could be
considered binge drinkers. That is, they had consumed five drinks in a
row for men, or four drinks for women, in the two weeks before they
answered the questionnaire. That proportion was down a bit from 44.1
percent in 1993.

The survey also showed a slight rise in those who abstain from
drinking, from 15.6 percent in 1993 to 19 percent in 1997.

Heavy Drinkers

But at the other end of the spectrum, among heavy drinkers, it also
found an increase in those who said they not only binged but binged
frequently: They rose to 20.7 percent of the 14,521 students in the
1997 survey from 19.5 percent of more than 15,000 students in the 1993
sample.

``Disappointment is the No. 1 emotion,'' Henry Wechsler, director of
College Alcohol Studies at the Harvard School of Public Health and
principal author of the study, said in a telephone interview about his
reaction to the results. ``It may be we're not doing enough at all
levels and we've got to start thinking about this in a broader context
than simply educating students, which has been the traditional approach.''

In fact, many colleges across the country over the last several years
have tried to stem heavy student drinking, spurred in part by an
unceasing string of accidental deaths, ranging from car crashes to
alcohol poisonings, caused by drinking.

Rite of Passage

But the study by Wechsler and his colleagues appeared to highlight the
intractable attraction that binge drinking holds for many students,
their adherence to what many see as a familiar rite of passage. In
particular, it noted that binge drinking in fraternities and
sororities, hotbeds of heavy drinking at many colleges, did not seem
to have diminished at all. In both 1993 and 1997, it found, four out
of five residents of fraternities and sororities houses were binge
drinkers.

The study surveyed 116 colleges in 39 states, using self-administered
questionnaires sent in anonymously by mail. It was financed by a grant
from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The study included a breakdown by ethnicity and found that
Asian-American students, who had a binge-drinking rate only about half
that of the general student population in 1993, had increased their
binge drinking at an above-average rate, while whites decreased
disproportionately. Even so, only about 25 percent of Asian-American
students were found to be binge drinkers, compared with 42.7 percent
of all students surveyed.

The findings come after years of more-encouraging news, other
researchers say. Professor Lloyd Johnston of the Institute for Social
Research at the University of Michigan said his institute's surveys
had produced findings on college drinking similar to Harvard's, but
because it had been following college students since 1980, it could
add some longer-term perspective.

``In fact, there was a period of decline in drinking and heavy
drinking,'' he said. ``Binge drinking as we call it actually dropped
fairly steadily from the mid-'80s to the mid-'90s -- by about
one-sixth in the decade ending in 1996.''

``But there is some turnaround beginning to occur in the last year or
two,'' he said -- nothing startling, but a bit of a ``bounce-back''
that might be a result of a lessening of attention to the issue.

Lack of Consequences

Judging by more than a dozen college students interviewed around
Boston on Wednesday, some of that rebound also seems to come from
age-old youthful feelings of immortality, an ``everybody does it, no
big deal'' attitude and a sense that even heavy drinking need not
bring serious consequences.

``When somebody gets drunk and needs to be carried out, they may be
teased about it for a week,'' said Brett Altschul, a senior majoring
in math and physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
``It's largely a matter of humor, though.''

At Boston College, Liz Russo, a junior, said she had a friend who
didn't drink at all and that she herself drank much less than she had
as a freshman. She said she had also noticed school authorities
cracking down by meting out punishment to underage students caught
hosting drinking parties in proportion to the amount of alcohol
confiscated. But in general, she said, ``It would be very unrealistic
to think drinking is just going to stop, because it's been part of
college life for so long.''

Typical Drinking

Monica Sandoval and Doug Kahn, two Boston University sophomores, said
five drinks in a row is typical drinking.

``Anyone that goes to a party does that or worse,'' Kahn said. ``If
you talk to anyone college-age, it's normal.

``It's not like we're all going to be alcoholics.''

But the Harvard researchers call binge drinking the most serious
public-health hazard confronting American universities, and note that
it affects not only the drinkers themselves, who are likelier to miss
classes and fall behind in school, but also the fellow students who
are assaulted or otherwise harmed by them.

Colleges and states have been trying a variety of new approaches to
combat binge drinking.

MIT, where a freshman died of alcohol poisoning last year in an
off-campus fraternity, announced this year that beginning in 2001, it
would make all freshmen live on campus. A task force on dangerous
drinking had concluded the move would reduce the risk for freshmen of
facing heavy social pressure to drink.

Colleges in Virginia are trying a variety of techniques, from holding
discussions on binge drinking for freshmen led by the attorney
general, to printing dates of birth on student ID cards, to ``three
strikes, you're out'' policies that put a student at risk of expulsion
after three alcohol-related infractions.

Retailers Targeted

And on some campuses around the country, fraternities have even banned
liquor at their events. But Wechsler said more must be done. Among
possible additional actions, he said, would be to target liquor
retailers around campuses and encourage them not to sell high volumes
of alcohol to students.

But cracking down in general also tends to have unintended
consequences, students said.

Since MIT has tried to reduce campus drinking in recent months, said
Shounak Lahiri, a graduate student, it does not seem to him that it
has actually declined. ``It's just gotten a little more stealthy,'' he
said.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry