Higher Education: Crocked on Campus

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The movement got a major boost last week from a study published by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health. Appearing in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the report contains the first scientifically reliable national survey that documents not only the astonishing prevalence of undergraduate drinking but also the effect that drinkers have on other students. Based on the responses of 17,592 students at 140 campuses, the researchers declared that nearly half of collegians are binge drinkers who cause all sorts of trouble, from vandalism to attacks on classmates. At the schools where drinking was most popular, more than two- thirds of students had had their sleep or study interrupted by drunken peers. More than half had been forced to care for an inebriated friend, and at least a fourth had suffered an unwanted sexual advance. Alcohol plays a role in 90% of rapes and almost all violent crime on campus.

It is not clear from the study whether students are drinking more than in the past. In fact, some schools claim to be seeing slight declines in overall alcohol consumption. But the findings suggest that among the many students who like to binge, there is a more relentless, desperate quality to the pursuit of intoxication. The drinkers also seem more blase than ever about the consequences. "Look, this is nothing," 20-year-old Cecily, a junior at the University of New Hampshire, tells a reporter as she downs her fourth beer at a midweek party. "We did the same thing last night and turned out for exams. We can handle it."

A particularly pernicious sign of the times is a phenomenon called frontloading, in which students drink alcohol, usually hard liquor, in private before attending a social event. "It's difficult to get alcohol when you're out because of the age law," explains Seph McKenna, a junior who lives in a substance-free dorm at Boston College. "So people say, 'I'd better be lubricated before I go out."' When writer Christopher Buckley gave the keynote address at the annual evening banquet of the Yale Daily News last month, he was so outraged by the boorish behavior of audience members, many of whom had been drinking since the afternoon, that he castigated them in a New York Times Op Ed piece.

To those who are fed up with binge drinking, the experts offer this advice: don't get even, get mad. "They must speak up for their rights," says Henry Wechsler, a public health expert who led the Harvard study. "If your roommate gets drunk every night, you demand either a new roommate or that you be moved." Wechsler is quick to point out that he doesn't want to get rid of drinking, just drunkenness. With up to 85% of college students imbibing at least some of the time, total prohibition is not practical, he says, but colleges can insist on moderation and have no tolerance for booze-induced violence.