Over the last half-century, heavy alcohol consumption has become a widespread practice of campus life, and it’s grown to involve up to half of the student population. As binge drinking habits increased, so did the concerns of administrators, faculty members, and other students. The effect that’ll be of particular focus is that of heavy alcohol consumption on college students’ academic performance.
There is plenty of research that proves the correlation between binge drinking and poor academic performance to be more than existent. For example, in the article “Understanding College Alcohol Abuse and Academic Performance: Selecting Appropriate Intervention Strategies” by Michael Sullivan and Ed Risler, a study conducted by C.A. Presley, P.W. Meilman, and R. Lyera was referenced. In their study, Presley, Meilman, and Lyera found that students who consumed less alcohol performed better academically than students who drank more. A-students had 3 drinks a week on average, while D-students had 10 drinks per week on average (Sullivan and Risler 115). Naturally, it’s expected that findings like these would shift the behaviors of college students, and prompt administrators to take action. Instead, research proves quite the opposite.
Although poor academic performance has been directly linked to binge drinking, the notable lack of response from students and administrators sparked an interest in researchers. After confirming the notion that binge drinking does, in fact, constitute poor academic performance, researchers began shifting their curiosity to the more perplexing component of the issue: Why, after the numerous occasions where subpar academic performance has been linked to binge drinking, haven’t students changed their habits? Why haven’t administrators and faculty members handled the matter with a sense of urgency? These topics are ones that came to be deeply discussed in order to introduce possible solutions to the bigger issue at hand.
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In another study “Problem Drinking Among College Freshmen” done by doctors Mark J. Werner and John W. Greene, two questionnaires were given to freshmen volunteers to analyze their drinking habits, and deduce which students were at high risk for alcohol dependency. It was discovered that more than half of their volunteers claimed that they’d drunk heavily in the last thirty days, forty percent of which scored as high-riskers on the questionnaires. The interesting fact, however, is that more than seventy percent of the students whose scores indicated that they were at risk for alcohol dependency soon intended on joining a fraternity or sorority house (Werner and Greene 489). According to Werner and Greene, “students intending to join the Greek system are more likely to be frequent, heavy, problem drinkers” (Werner, Greene 491). It’s important to highlight that problem drinking is different from alcoholism. While they are similar in the sense that both consume unhealthy doses of alcohol and deal with negative effects, alcoholics are physically addicted to alcohol consumption, and problem drinkers are not.
The habit of binge drinking on campus has led to many dangerous and chaotic situations, many of which have left students injured, in legal trouble, or even dead. Although this connection isn’t unbeknownst to university administrators and faculty members, they haven’t seemed to be taking serious action to stop these casualties from happening. According to Beth Mcmurtie’s article “Why Colleges Haven’t Stopped Binge Drinking”, there are multiple reasons to take into account when discussing binge drinking in college. Campus culture and environmental pressures are some serious contributors to the issue (McMurtrie). McMurtrie explains how environments like local bars, for example, promote college binge drinking by luring students in with happy hours and discounts. And because the local bars aren’t affiliated with any colleges, nothing can really be done about it.
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One campus culture that constitutes the issue of college binge drinking traces back to societies known as Greek-letter organizations. Founded in the 1700s, Greek houses were created by students as a form of escape from the rigidity of their academic environments. In her article, “The Dark Power of Fraternities”, Caitlin Flanagan discusses the phenomenon of fraternity culture in relation to their excessive drinking habits. She asserts that there’s a concerning number of injuries, physical assaults, and sexual crimes that happen in fraternity houses while the perpetrator was under the influence of alcohol. Flanagan also introduces another possible reason as to why college administrators won’t take serious action to solve the college drinking issue. She claims that as fraternity houses became a popular part of campus culture, colleges grew to become more dependent on them. According to Flanagan, Greek Houses have advanced to assist universities with their admission, student retention, and housing rates, therefore becoming a valuable asset to the school (Flanagan).
Though these unsettling results might depict college binge drinking to be a helpless matter, researchers also began to explore possible resolutions to the issue. In the article “Understanding College Alcohol Abuse and Academic Performance: Selecting Appropriate Intervention Strategies”, Michael Sullivan and Ed Risler reinforced the findings of the previously mentioned researchers, including Werner, Greene, Presley, Meilman, and Lyera. Additionally, they present possible ways to apprehend the issue of college binge drinking. To do this, they first present three common methods of apprehension. The public health strategy suggests that reducing the availability of alcohol would lower consumption rates. The second apprehension strategy the authors present is the sociocultural strategy. This strategy suggests that rather than getting completely wasted, the use of alcohol should be promoted at legal and appropriate doses. The third strategy that Sullivan and Risler present is known as the disease approach. This strategy suggests that students who’ve been identified as having a predisposition to alcohol dependence should consider abstinence (Sullivan and Risler 116-117). While each strategy promises some level of success, Sullivan and Risler highlight that each of these strategies has its limitations. With regards to the public health strategy, the authors state that the interdiction of alcohol won’t curb heavy drinkers’ habits. Next, the authors claim that the sociocultural model will only be effective for a small percentage of students, since many of them displayed unhealthy drinking habits before they enrolled in college. Lastly, Sullivan and Risler debunked the disease approach because they argue that binge drinkers tend to be in denial of the fact that they have a drinking problem (Sullivan and Risler 117-118).
So, what are some effective apprehension strategies that don’t work only under certain conditions? This is where Sullivan and Risler’s ideas begin to align, almost identically, with the previously mentioned researchers. One common resolution strategy among the researchers is to create as much of a non-confrontational, collaborative, and social environment as possible. Indirect and empathetic approaches have proven to be the most successful apprehension strategies when aiding college students in moderating their drinking habits. By creating college communities that promote the moderation of, or even abstinence from alcohol consumption, researchers are hopeful that the issue of binge drinking in college students will someday be solved.
Works Cited
Werner, Mark J. M.D., Greene, John w. M.D. “Problem Drinking among College Freshmen.” Journal of Adolescent Health, vol. 13, no. 6, 1992, pp. 487-492. ScienceDirect, https://doi.org/10.1016/1054-139X(92)90012-Z
Sullivan, Michael, Risler, Ed. “Understanding College Alcohol Abuse and Academic Performance: Selecting Appropriate Intervention Strategies.” Journal of College Counseling, vol. 5, no. 2, 2002, pp. 114-123. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-1882.2002.tb00213.x
Flanagan, Caitlin. “The Dark Power of Fraternities.” The Atlantic, Mar. 2014, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/03/the-dark-power-of-fraternities/357580/
Mcmurtie, Beth. “Why Colleges Haven’t Stopped Binge Drinking.” The New York Times, 14 Dec. 2014, https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/15/us/why-colleges-havent-stopped-binge-drinking.html
