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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 2002

Calling college alcohol use a "culture of drinking," a national task force on Tuesday recommended wide-sweeping changes aimed at reducing student deaths, rapes and other consequences associated with the campus phenomenon.

Based on three years of research, the government-sponsored group said drinking is a custom "entrenched in every level of college students’ environments." It is expected that students use alcohol during their college years, study authors noted.

"This culture actively promotes drinking, or passively promotes it, through tolerance, or even tacit approval, of college drinking as a rite of passage," the Task Force on College Drinking wrote.

A number of high-profile incidents involving campus drinking show the practice can be deadly. The task force, using data and estimates culled from a variety of sources, said 1,400 students between the ages of 18 and 24 die every year from alcohol use, while an additional 70,000 are raped, 500,000 are injured and 600,000 are assaulted.

Despite the known dangers, however, rates of heavy alcohol use haven't dropped much over the years. According to one study, the rate of binge drinking, defined as five consecutive drinks for a man and four for a woman, hasn't changed.

Native students aren't exempt. The same study showed that 34 percent of American Indians and Alaska Natives on campus were binge drinkers, the second highest rate in the nation.

To combat drinking, the task force said school leaders must do more. "Universities are often afraid to reveal that they have a problem with alcohol, although everyone knows it anyway," said Robert L. Carothers, president of the University of Rhode Island.

Colleges need to identify students with problems and provide services to them, the report recommended. Males, whites, athletes and fraternity members tend to drink the most, based on research cited.

Schools are also urged to enforce drinking laws, including the restriction of alcohol sales near campuses. Communities often depend on college drinking to turn a profit, the task force said.

Finally, the panel said policies should be adopted to discourage drinking. Saturday classes, alcohol-free dorms and curbing drinking at school-sponsored events should be considered, the report stated.

The task force is part of the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism of the National Institutes of Health. Co-chairs are Edward A. Malloy, president of the University of Notre Dame, and Mark Goldman, a professor from the University of South Florida.

Get the Study:
Table of Contents | Full Report - A Call to Action: Changing the Culture of Drinking at U.S. Colleges (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism April 2002)

Relevant Links:
College Drinking, Changing the Culture - http://www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov

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Report: Native youth highest drug users (10/5)