College women drink more, study reports

College women are now drinking nearly as much as men, according to a recent study on college alcohol usage. The National Commission on Substance Abuse at Colleges and Universities, formed at Columbia University, found that the percentage of college-age women who drink for the sole purpose of getting drunk has tripled since the mid-1970s. The Commission also found that alcohol is a present factor in most major campus incidents, such as rape, other violent crimes and even academic difficulties. And due to these findings, the Commission suggested that college crime reports be required to note whether alcohol or drug abuse played a role in each incident. University Police Commissioner John Kuprevich said this week that making such notations on crime reports is "certainly" feasible -- in fact, his department has already started doing it. "We certainly have discussed this in the last year and have made moves to start gathering that information," he said. "We have asked officers in writing reports of any sort to ask questions in terms of whether there was alcohol or drug involvement at all -- not for purposes of prosecution, but to note that and to gather data on that." Greek Alumni Council Chairperson Andrea Dobin -- who was influential in developing the Greek system's new alcohol policy -- said she sees a strong correlation between alcohol and serious incidents on campus. "That was one of the reasons that we started looking at the use of alcohol in the Greek system -- [it] was the trend that we had identified on Penn's campus," she said. "Regulation has led to a demonstrated decrease of serious incidents on campus." She added though, that the percentage of women drinkers has probably not gone up as much as the Committee reported, because women "have become much more vocal about their substance use" in recent years. "I would say that the use of alcohol has probably not changed as much as the awareness," she said. "Women didn't feel comfortable [in the 1970s] discussing their alcohol use because of the nature of the women's role in life." College junior Jessica Thrope also said she thought the Committee's numbers were a bit exaggerated, especially because at the University "definitely men drink a lot more," and in general "women's tolerance is a lot smaller." The Commission also found that approximately one-third of all college students -- both male and female -- drink primarily to get drunk, and that 90 percent of rapes, 95 percent of violent crime and 80 percent of vandalism on campus are alcohol-related. Still, Kuprevich said alcohol and drug abuse are not any more of a problem at the University than at other schools. "From what I have seen here, my sense is that we are probably no different than a campus of similar size," he said. "Certain periods of the year [and] certain kinds of events draw a higher propensity to abuse alcohol. "Spring Fling is one of them," he added. The Washington Post contributed to this article.