How to Curb Binge Drinking at U.S. Colleges: Sell Alcohol on Campus

[KamaAina]

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/120576/college-binge-drinking-need-campus-bars

On Sunday, The New York Times reported that "the binge-drinking rate among college students has hovered above 40 percent for two decades." The article described staggering resources that have been applied to this problem, and also how tailgating, bars near campuses with lax policies, and Greek life exacerbate it. But the Times ignored an institution that could make an enormous difference: the campus bar.

When I studied abroad at King’s College London in the fall of 2012, the wait to get into one of the campus bars—Guy’s Bar—was almost always over an hour. Guy’s was one of two bars run by the university, and until last year, the school also had a nightclub called Tutu’s. Both bars offer competitively discounted drink specials for students, snacks, and a chance to see and be seen. But these watering holes don’t just provide students with a cheap, convenient alternative to expensive London bars, they also afford the school enormous influence over how, when, and how much students at King’s drink.

Of course, most college students in the U.S. are not of legal drinking age. The U.K., where the drinking age is 18, doesn’t have this problem. But even given this hurdle (and given that we already allow very limited exceptions to drinking laws in certain circumstances), it’s worth considering the campus bar. Here’s how it could work:...

I turned 21 before I went abroad, and by the time I got back to campus that spring, most of my friends had caught up with me. We all but stopped going to house parties in lieu of going to bars, and I saw far less binge drinking in my last year and a half of school. It seemed that putting a price tag on drinking and removing its taboo contributed to changing people’s habits. So many programs and experiments have been tried with little success, maybe it’s time to give students what they want—and universities what they need.

Just lower the damn drinking age already! (I was one of the unfortunate souls who kept getting caught a year behind when MADD revved up the cry of "Think of the children!" back in the '80s. )

[NYC_SKP]

1. College kids' minds are not as fully formed as they need to be to be able to drink responsibly.

They are basically emotional 7th graders with more hormones and a drivers license.

I would have a zero tolerance policy on the campus of the University of NYC_SKP.

[former9thward]

8. If their minds don't allow them to drink responsibly

how can they vote, marry or sign contracts? Better raise those ages to 30. Right? If you couldn't drink responsibly during college years that is your situation. Not mine.

[NYC_SKP]

9. It wasn't a problem for me, but it was for friends of mine now dead. Odd of you to make that leap.

I'll warn you right now, you'll lose this argument.

We let people with dementia vote, so that really doesn't matter.
Marriage causes no harm to others, so that's moot.
Signing contracts? Well, if both parties know the law then little harm can come from it.

However, campuses are purposeful places for learning, period.

Just as there's no place for drinking in a bank or a factory because they need people to be banking or building, and doing so safely, there's no place for drinking at a place of learning.

I could provide a lot of evidence about developmental age and alcoholism, but you'd probably reject it out of hand, so I won't bother.

Rapes, fights, injuries and brain damage are all fun factors in college drinking.

It was never for me.

[former9thward]

11. Marriage causes no harm to others???

Tell that to children of divorced parents. Or tell that to wives (generally) who have been abused.

If both parties know the law??? What 21 year olds are lawyers? If their minds are so undeveloped then they don't have the capacity to "know the law"

Let people with dementia vote??? I don't think that is ok. If you do, never complain about the election results or how "stupid" the American people are as I see in post after post here.

[NYC_SKP]

12. Marriage doesn't cause child or spousal abuse. People cause that.

The law is there to protect anyone incapable of entering a contract, children can't enter a contract legally and one can't contract for illegal goods, so no harm, really.

Yes, people with dementia and other disorders vote in every election and in growing numbers.

Unless a family member or friend with power of attorney or a doctor intervenes, the right to vote only ends with death.

I don't think it's OK, but it happens.

Your first reply used a logical fallacy. Leave voting and marriage out of it and talk about whether or not 17 year olds are capable of making good decisions about drugs and drinking and if that's compatible with higher education.

I think it's not.

[Politicalboi]

2. Raise the drinking age to 25

By that time they should be finished with college, or not interested in drinking. Let them smoke weed instead.

[Warpy]

3. MADD picked the wrong damned fight, that's for sure

I grew up drinking beer, just a juice glass of it at a time. When I was 13, a friend found a bar where they'd serve us in a back booth, in paper cups with straws. I discovered the stuff could get you drunk and it was a novelty for a while. I also learned what it did to me on the bicycle ride back home. I was over it by 15.

The drinking age needs to be lowered. Watering holes should be neighborhood affairs, people able to walk home or catch a ride close to home from a relatively sober person. That also applies to college campuses. Frat parties and the binge drinking leading to alcohol poisoning would be far less attractive than seeing all one's non frat friends at a location where drinking isn't a pressured affair. Most people would rather get buzzed than have alcohol poured down their throats until they end up in the ER on dialysis (if they're lucky).

Keeping it illegal for kids who are old enough to vote tends to glamorize it, something MADD completely failed to see. It did more to increase drinking than giving 18 year olds access to bars did.

What we need to do is figure out how to remove the need to drive after one gets a good buzz on.

And if they do drive drunk, the car needs to be taken away.

[KittyWampus]

4. nothing in your post touches on what goes on in college drinking. A huge part of it is machismo.

Also, the lack of real "coming of age" rituals with deep meaning.

[HappyMe]

5. Coming of age rituals with deep meaning?

Machismo?

The kids are away from the watchful eye of their parents - they all go a little nuts.

[Warpy]

7. Let the frat boys have the machismo

Kids who go to bars and have to pay for every drink display far less of it, they just can't afford the price tag. They go, see their friends, get a buzz, and go home. The next morning they have a headache and it dawns on them that getting a buzz didn't prepare them for class, so they learn to save the bar for when there is no pressure.

House parties and frat parties are where the drinking games occur and your masculinity judged by how much booze can go down your gullet before you puke.

The lack of milestones for groups of young males is another thing, entirely. This is about alcohol.

[Maedhros]

6. I noticed this effect when I attended graduate school at the University of Alberta.

My undergraduate years were spent at Oregon State University, which had a very prohibitionist culture with regard to drinking. Local ordinances prevented the establishment of bars within a certain distance from campus, and the local sheriff waged a private war against keggers and house parties. The result was that most upperclassmen ended up driving to bars far from campus to engage in serious drinking. One establishment, the Beaver Hut, had "Dimers" on Thursday - 10-cent beers that one would buy by the tray-full. The effect of this prohibitionist attitude was to ensure that many college students were driving drunk, with the expected casualties. Each year there was at least one drunk-driving related death or case of alcohol poisoning.

At the University of Alberta, the drinking age was 19 and there were 9 or 10 bars on campus. Nobody needed to drive anywhere, and while I consumed my share of beer I did not witness the kind of serious binge drinking I had seen at Oregon State. The only serious injury that could be construed to be drinking-related was when a student slipped on an icy stairway returning to her dorm from the bar in the top of the Student Union building.

Lower the drinking age to 18, stop treating alcohol like the Forbidden Substance of Mystery, and we'll see less binge drinking.

[hedgehog]

10. Look over some of the older stories of frat house parties.

Binge drinking is nothing new.

BTW - why does everyone think binge drinking happens only on college campuses? Plenty of people not working on a B.A. binge drink.

[kydo]

13. Its not just legal drinking age thats the problem

I got held back on drinking legally thanks to the raygun blackmail about federal funds for highways back in the 1980's.

Here is a great sad tale about booze. For some strange reason my state FL (which explains the strangeness), took part in this blackmail, kind of. At first the state raised the drinking age from 18 to 19. Something about the governor's kid.

But shit fuck if I didn't get screwed.

The year I was to turn 19 it all changed. Some hair brain politician decided the year of 1966 was to be the year of doomed birth. But maybe because its Fl and we are nuts they couldn't be logical about this and start the age hike oh say Dec. 31, 1965 or Jan. 1, 1966. Nope we had to be FL and it was July 1 1966. If you were born before that date you could get blitzed legally in the state of FL. After that date you had to wait until you were 21. I was born in Oct. 1966.

I was so pissed! I yelled at my parents, "Why?!? didn't you have sooner!"

Then joined the Gator marching band because well I don't remember I must have been drunk. Oh wait, I remember. Its because they had a reputation as a party band and when we played LSU at LSU we got paid to go to Bourbon St where I could show my real ID and buy booze.

Later I became an alcoholic. Oddly tonight I will pick up my 14 year medallion. Got sober 12/07/2000. Crazy, considering that was when W stole the election and my state was right in the middle of the mess.

But its the marketing that really drives drinking. Everything is a reason to drink and everything is sponsored by Bud, and Coors or whatever. Morning radio shows sponsored by bud light telling you to support their sponsors at 8am but drink responsibly. You can not have fun if you are not drinking.

So we tell kids to be cool drink but not until you are old enough. So guess what? They go out and get booze anyway. And lots of it.

The drinking age should be 18.