Study says drinking on the rise

The study cited increased rates of binge drinking and singled out Greek organizations for their role. Scott Krueger, dead after drinking one too many pints of beer at an MIT fraternity. Virginia Tech sophomore Melinda Somers, dead on a Halloween night after a drunken eight-story plunge. Louisiana State's Benjamin Wynne, dead after a night of drinking that left several fraternity brothers dangerously close to the same fate. In the wake of a series of alcohol-related deaths over the past year on campuses nationwide, a recent study reports that half of all college students had engaged in "drinking to get drunk" during the previous 30 days. Two in five students regularly engage in binge drinking, reported the study, published in the September issue of the Journal of American College Health. Highlighting "an intensification of severe drinking behavior among drinkers," the study noted that the number of drinkers who had binged three or more times in the past month increased by 22 percent over the past four years. Drinking to get drunk was up 33 percent over the same period. Binge drinking is defined as at least five drinks in a row for men or four in a row for women. "There is a failure of association between binge drinking and the heightened risk of [adverse] consequences," said George Dowdall, one of the study's authors and a professor at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia. "I was kind of disappointed in the results." One of the study's findings particularly alarmed Dowdall. Four out of five members of a fraternity or sorority regularly engage in binge drinking, the same percentage as did four years ago. "It really makes you wonder whether fraternities and sororities can change," Dowdall said. "The messages are louder now than they were four years ago," said University of Iowa President Mary Sue Coleman, who has made fighting alcohol abuse on her campus one of her top priorities. "In the end we need to make it acceptable for students to make good choices for their lives." But Janelle Brodsky, president of Penn's Panhellenic Council -- which governs campus sororities -- pointed to nationwide "initiatives to go dry within the last 12 months," including those of several fraternities with chapters of Penn. "If you do the survey again in four years, you might get a different response," said Brodsky, a College and Engineering senior. Still, she conceded that not everyone is interested in abstinence. "The reality is that people come to college, and one of the things many people want to do is drink," Brodsky said. "They're going to find somewhere to drink, regardless." But Greeks play a disproportionate role in satisfying the demand for alcohol. The study's lead author, Henry Wechsler, noted in a press release that "fraternity and sorority members? continue to be at the center of the campus alcohol culture." And according to Scott Reikofski, director of Penn's Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs, "it's an environment that helps encourage and facilitate [drinking]." Brodsky disputes this. "I don't think that people that have a serious problem? are coming from the sororities," she said. Dowdall said, however, that attitudes like Brodsky's are at the crux of what he terms a "public health crisis": denial of the alcohol problem. Dowdall noted that colleges and individuals need to come to grips with the consequences of drinking before real progress can be made. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where Krueger's death made headlines last year, school spokesperson Ken Campbell said officials have done just that. "People are realizing that, yeah, it's true you can die from alcohol," he said. Campbell cited an MIT internal study which showed only 23 percent of MIT students engaged in binge drinking regularly, versus 42 percent nationwide. He described one part of MIT's new alcohol-awareness program which really hit home. "One of the [awareness counselors] asked, 'How many students know somebody who has been killed in an incident related to alcohol?' " Campbell said. "Out of 800 [students], 400 stood up." Reikofski said Penn has also increased such awareness programs in recent years. The programs for Greeks on Penn's campus are "more than most [non-Greek] freshmen are getting, particularly in the fall, when alcohol-related incidents occur," said Wharton senior Jeffrey Snyder, the InterFraternity Council's vice president for rush. He said binge drinking is "common among college students in general. The definitions are a bit unrealistic." But one past participant, Lambda Chi Alpha brother Shane Stein, had a different take on the seminars. "It wasn't anything I didn't know before," said Stein, a College junior. He added that it did nothing to change his attitude toward alcohol. And Brodsky sounded a cautionary note as to the ability of any awareness effort to reach those who truly need to listen. "I could get up and beg and yell and scream? and they don't care," she said. Dowdall summed up the evidence: the continued binge drinking "points to the limits of? [the] types of initiative where you explain to people what the risks are." He noted the study's finding that those who drank consumed more alcohol more often than four years ago, while the decrease in the overall number of drinkers came from the ranks of those who previously drank occasionally and in moderation. "There is a kind of gulf on college campuses between people who are slightly more turned off and the two in five who are binge drinkers," Dowdall said. Officials at Louisiana State University, another school where a drinking death made headlines, say they have realized there is more to the solution than education. The school has received a five-year, $700,000 grant from the the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to find other ways to curb binge drinking among college students. The grant's stated goal echoes the notion that societal norms lie at the heart of the drinking problem. A press release announcing the grant notes that "the general American culture has created an environment that contributes to the drinking problem." "It's like the movie Dazed and Confused," said Brodsky. "[Encouraging drinking] is something that society does."