MADD announces plans to fight binge drinking at colleges

Marking a shift in its founding mission, Mothers Against Drunk Driving has announced the launch of a national campaign to combat underage drinking, with a special focus on binge drinking at the college level. MADD hopes to set a national standard alcohol policy on college campuses and to rate schools based on their enforcement of the policy. The organization also announced its intention to set up additional college chapters. Currently, only one of MADD's 600 chapters is based at a university. "What better way is there than peer pressure to help change the notion that binge drinking is acceptable?" MADD National President Millie Webb asked. Binge drinking for men is defined as consuming five or more alcoholic drinks in one sitting. The standard for women is four drinks. Last year's Harvard School of Public Health nationwide study of 14,000 college students found that 22.7 percent of students reported frequent binge drinking, up from 19.8 percent in 1993. "This is an extremely serious issue and MADD has added the prevention of underage drinking to its mission statement," said Rebecca Shaver, executive director of MADD's Pennsylvania state chapter. Though the revision of their mission statement is an expansion of their original mission -- fighting drunk driving -- Shaver explained that binge drinking does cause accidents if students drink excessive amounts of alcohol and then get in a car. As a result, MADD helped pass legislation lowering the legal blood alcohol level from .10 to .08. Former President Bill Clinton signed the bill into law last October, and it is currently awaiting approval in most states. Because few Penn students have cars on campus, drunk driving is not as much an issue here as it is elsewhere, according to University Alcohol Policy Coordinator Stephanie Ives. However, Ives still praised MADD's new campaign. "Any organization that deals with the issue through new techniques is a welcome sight," Ives said. Despite the focus on student responsibility, MADD believes that an important part of the solution is to improve parent responsibility. "Parents still need to be role models to teach our young people that alcohol use, like other drugs, cannot be tolerated," Shaver said. Ives agreed and cited research that showed more responsibility on the part of students when there is active parental engagement. In addition to the parental focus, MADD is currently looking into legislative answers, such as proposals to increase compliance checks and institute keg registration. According to Webb, MADD is also looking to get help from outside sources, such as churches, law enforcement officials and restaurants in dealing with underage binge drinking. "There's no one answer to the problem," said Ives. "We need to look at the issue comprehensively."