College students know binge drinking has far-reaching effects, but underage drinking is alive and well at the University.
Last weekend, the Eugene Police Department handed out 38 citations for minor in possession of alcohol in neighborhoods near campus and ejected more than 100 people from Saturday’s Oregon football game due to issues with alcohol. Police also arrested nine game-goers for driving under the influence and another two for disorderly conduct because of alcohol.
Department of Public Safety Director Kevin Williams expressed concern about Autzen’s intoxicated fans.
“I worry and am concerned for our students who drink alcohol in excess,” said Williams. “That’s a health issue, a safety issue and it can be a medical issue.”
The University Health Center sees many cases of the latter throughout the school year, said Associate Director Anne Mattson.
“We see students who come to the health center who, as a result of binge drinking, will have had bodily trauma, non-consensual sex or slowed down response systems,” she said.
In a 2004 survey conducted by the Health Center, 87 percent of students reported drinking alcohol in the last year. Of those students, 15.3 percent reported they did something they later regretted while under the influence. More than 5 percent had a blackout experience, 5.2 percent had physically injured themselves, and 2.2 percent had unprotected sex as a consequence of drinking.
Both DPS and the health center consider binge drinking – by definition, the consumption of more than five drinks in one sitting for males and four for females – to be a problem at the University, but binge drinking is a national battle that countless colleges struggle with each year. The Office of the Surgeon General issued its first-ever call to action to stop underage drinking in March, reporting that 7.2 million of the 11 million underage drinkers in the U.S. are binge drinkers.
For generations, concerned parents have taught their teenagers abstinence from alcohol. Psychologist Stanton Peele wrote a book arguing that parents who let their kids drink at home and in moderation will eliminate their child’s desire to binge drink in college.
“Sipping wine with parents at dinner or at religious ceremonies is the antithesis of a drinking problem,” said Peele. “Our cultural drinking problems are represented in our fears about alcohol and our apprehension that children will be tempted by this forbidden fruit.”
Unfortunately, he said, “our portrayal of alcohol in this light leads to worse attitudes, behavior and experiences with alcohol.”
Peele’s theory may explain why underage college students take great pains to procure fake IDs and why, according to a study conducted by the University of Missouri at Columbia, they are twice as likely to binge drink than students 21 or older. The 33 percent of kids who reported they had fake IDs by the fourth semester of college were shown to be five to six times more likely to binge drink once a week.
Mattson said Peele’s strategy won’t necessarily prevent students from drinking heavily during college.
“We see college students at the health center who drank in high school and binge drink now,” she said. “It’s complicated, because so much of it is related to individual family histories and values.”
The health center, Mattson said, promotes harm reduction rather than abstinence.
“Drinking alcohol under the age of 21 is illegal, but if you’re going to do it, you should know how to drink responsibly,” she said.
Williams added, “The message from DPS will always be that adults of age can consume alcohol, but we ask that it be done legally and in moderation.”
The health center offers substance abuse counselors to binge drinkers, alcoholics or those who suspect they have a problem and need help. It also regularly screens students for alcohol consumption when they visit.
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