Do you consider yourself to be an alcoholic or a binge drinker? It’s safe to say that neither do most of the students who go to Fairfield. Nobody thinks that having drinks and partying with their friends makes them a social deviant. But, according to all the buzz around campus and around town lately, the students definitely have to start rethinking their drinking habits. First of all, how do we know what bingeing is and if we are doing it? It is defined as a period of excessive or uncontrolled indulgence. Harvard School of Public Health defines binge drinking as consuming four or more drinks in a night for women and five or more drinks in a night for men. Not many college students, however, would tend to agree with this, because many of us drink that much at least two or three nights a week. Most of us are able to know when we have had enough to drink, but there are obviously a large amount of others who can’t, or won’t, make that distinction. Why would people want to do this to themselves? “I think binge drinking is something that most college students engage in,” explains Sophomore Beth Orga. “Alcohol is accessible, and it’s what the social scene entails. I just think people want to prove themselves so much to each other that they do it in excess.” If our friends are the causes of this prevalent problem, then who needs enemies? It’s not that our friends hate us and want to give us drinking problems; the unfortunate truth is that sometimes when you see that your friends are out-drinking, you might feel like you are obligated to keep up with them. It’s a form of peer pressure that you unknowingly place upon yourself. Not that this is an excuse, but let’s also keep in mind that we are college students who are away from home, our parents, curfews and other tedious rules. We want to exercise the freedom that we have to the fullest, even if sometimes that involves making poor choices. Sophomore Kristin Rodrigues agrees. “I think in college it’s a completely different environment. We are on our own and don’t have our parents around to enforce the ‘rules,’ so we are rebelling.” And in some cases, “we drink as much as we can get away with because it’s fun,” she adds. Drinking is obviously not just a problem with college students; alcoholism affects people of all ages, everywhere in the world. However, drinking in the “binge” form is factually more common among college age students. “I think college age students drink way too much,” Orga continues. “They do it to the point where it is unhealthy all around and can have a negative impact on every part of their lives.” With all this knowledge that we have on the subject of binge drinking, why is it that beer funnels and “beer pong” tables can still be found in an overwhelmingly large number of the rooms on this campus? “Students consider it recreational drinking not binge drinking,” says Senior Michele Bowman. Just because you might have more than four drinks in a night doesn’t necessarily mean that you have a problem. The important thing is being able to recognize what binging is and to do your best to make sure that you or the people around you do not regularly engage in this type of behavior. Responsibility is the key; maybe if we start treating ourselves with more respect, then we would have a stronger case with the people who so often criticize us.