Underage Drinking Rises at Fairfield, Follows National Trend
Posted by Deanna Mitchell at 10:00 am 508 Comments Print
Fairfield saw a 70% increase in cases of alcohol disciplinary action between 2007 and 2008, with 1,285 cases in 2008 and only 900 in 2007. according to the Jeanne Cleary report.
“The alcohol is more accessible than drugs, and that makes it more dangerous because people will indulge more into it,” said student TFG*.
That’s why it should not come as a shock that when students are asked what they are doing on a Friday night, the majority answer: drinking.
Fairfield Ranks High For Hard Alcohol Usage
According to The Princeton Review, Fairfield University ranks third for usage of hard alcohol on campus. Another university close to Fairfield’s size, Providence College, was ranked second on this list, and the Jesuit university Loyola University in New Orleans was ranked 19.
Students believe that alcohol is the preferred choice of the majority of the student body only because of the illegality of most drugs. Because of Fairfield’s size, it is easier for authorities to catch drug abusers than at larger universities.
“I think [students] drink more because of the perception that it’s safer, and because it’s legal,” says student Ryan King*, “It doesn’t mean that alcohol is safe, but it’s safer than taking drugs.”
Fairfield and Providence beat large state universities on their usage of hard liquor, including schools like University of Wisconsin-Madison, Indiana University, and many other large schools. Although these state schools have fraternities and sororities, our relatively small Northeast university, was able to claim a higher ranking on the list of hard liquor use.
“The consequences of getting caught with alcohol and drugs are different, so people take the consequences of drinking over drugs because it’s less severe. That causes people to drink more hard liquor and act stupid,” said Sarah Joseph ’13.
Although Fairfield does take initiative to curb underage drinking, the numbers show that the efforts have not been significant. FUSA offers programming every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night to ensure students that there are activities available on campus that do not require drinking.
However, although good attendance has been reported, it has been said that some students arrive to these events already under the influence of alcohol or leave the events prematurely to begin drinking.
Alcohol Abuse: A Nationwide College Trend
“Alcohol remains the favored substance of abuse on college campuses by far, but the abuse of prescription drugs and marijuana has increased dramatically since the mid-1990s”, according to the study released by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University.
According to the Summary Campus Crime Discipline Data for 2005-07 , the number of on-campus drug arrest across the nation has steadily increased from 2005 to 2007. Even with this increase, alcohol violations are 86% of the total crime report.
“A job wouldn’t reject you if you were drinking, but if you were doing drugs, well that’s more severe,” said Joseph, “Some people make the decision to do drugs while others decide that it’s better to get really, really drunk.”
Alcohol and underage drinking has been a norm on college campuses throughout the United States. According to the student newspaper at Washington University in St Louis, “College campuses continue to cultivate dangerous drinking habits, and they are out of step with the rest of nation… ‘a lot of unmarried people, without children, will tend to have higher rates of binge drinking, and of course they’re concentrated at college campus…Grucsza [assistant professor of psychiatry] said.”
This trend can also be seen at another Jesuit University, Loyola College in Maryland. According to an article for their student newspaper, “The Greyhound,” since bars were cracking down on the use of fake identification, alcohol use on campus was greatly increasing. These articles show that underage binge drinking on college campuses is a nationwide occurrence.
The Dangers of Alcohol Abuse
Though numbers have increased nationally, Fairfield is experiencing a decline in drug abuse violations. While many students believe this is because of their fear of getting in trouble, some think that it is a healthier choice to drink.
“People overdose on drugs all the time,” said Mikerline Jean-Baptist. “I don’t think getting alcohol poisoning is any better, but you have a better chance at surviving,”
According to Todd Pelazza, Director of Public Safety, “[we see] predominantly alcohol and marijuana, however we have seen other drugs such as cocaine, heroin, and synthetic drugs…but that is on a far lesser scale.” As a public safety officer, Pelazza has encountered students with alcohol and drug consumption on a regular basis
Pelazza continued, “We’ve seen overdosing with alcohol where students have to be taken to the hospital.” Although students can call the 2241 extension to sleep off their alcohol abuse in the Health Center, under the observation of a nurse, students who have dangerously binged on alcohol must be taken to the hospital by Public Safety or EMT volunteers.
Tom Smith, a junior EMT volunteer said, “We see a lot more people with alcohol related issues …and with people that are drunk, they tend to get hurt a lot more often than people on drugs so that presents a bigger problem.”
Smith has to address the level of alcohol or drug abuse of the student to enact a plan of action. The main concern is deciding whether or not a student must be taken to the hospital or if the student just needs a good night of sleep in the Health Center.
What Lies Ahead
The clubs and organizations on campus will continue to provide programming that is substance free. Since these clubs recognize that many students on campus do not wish to engage in underage drinking, they provide an atmosphere in which they can avoid the pressure to succumb to drinking.
Students, on the other hand, do not see an end to the ignorance of binge drinking and drug abuse. “There are many different drugs with many different effects, but there’s only one drunk,” said King, “Either can get you arrested, but which phone call would your mother prefer?”
*names have been changed to protect identities
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