It’s a typical weekend scene: a handle of Bacardi, some sodas and shot glasses and six of your best friends all crammed into one, tiny room in the dorms. One of you opens the door to an RA perched outside waiting to catch a glimpse of anything suspicious.
The next thing you know you are sitting in Alcohol 101.
It has come to be an institution dreaded and avoided by most Fairfield students, but if you don’t lie to the dean and accept your punishment, you may actually find you learn something in this mandatory class, according to several students who have participated.
And now the school may learn something about you, thanks to a mandatory two-part survey that students are now required to fill out to determine drinking habits on campus.
If you attend an Alcohol and Other Drugs (AOD) class (Alcohol 101, 202 or Townhouses and Apartments 101), you will participate in a 30-day study conducted by the University to establish the quantity and frequency of student alcohol use. This research is implemented through a short survey in class, followed by an online check-up 30 days later.
Students are encouraged to answer the survey truthfully and it is all anonymous. The questionnaire asks students how often they consume alcohol, how many drinks they typically have, if they have ever experienced an inability to stop drinking, if they have ever been unable to remember events due to drinking and if their friends have ever expressed concern about their drinking habits.
Instructor of AOD classes Jeanne DiMuzio, director of counseling services as well as wellness and prevention said that she believes the survey will be effective in determining the success of the rehabilitation program at Fairfield.
“The test will assist us in measuring the impact on the initial intervention by Public Safety or Residence Life at the time of the infraction, the impact of the follow-up process … and finally the AOD classes or an alcohol assessment,” DiMuzio said.
Even with preventative changes being instituted to the program, DiMuzio’s classes almost always reach the eight-student limit.
In terms of class composition, male students outnumbered females at AOD101 by a ratio of 83 to 68 for the Fall 2007 semester and freshman represented the majority of attendees, nearly doubling the number of sophomores present.
But even with an awareness of the punishment, underclassmen continue to drink.
“We were pretty careless my freshman and sophomore years,” said Jason Apostolides ’08. “We thought that even if we got in trouble, there would be some way out and it wasn’t enough to make us stop drinking altogether.”
Many students will continue to use alcohol as a sort of reward or means of relaxing after a stressful week, according to DiMuzio.
“I think that’s why college students drink,” DiMuzio said. “Because the week is over, it’s a celebration, a social activity, a connector.”
The negative repercussions of drinking such as pregnancy, STDs, assault, regretted sex and a damaged reputation are often overlooked, according to DiMuzio. She said that she hopes the class will remind students of the realities associated with binge drinking, in addition to making them aware of alcohol-related statistics.
“I went into the class wondering what I could possibly learn more about alcohol,” said Kirsten Finnell ’08, who said she attended the class as a freshman.
“I found out that there was actually a lot I did not know about drinking,” she said. Kelly Oliver ’08 also attended the class her freshman year and remembers the experience fondly.
“I actually did learn a lot,” she said. “It was fun and interesting because of the teacher and there were a lot of people I knew in the class.”
In addition to being a social event, some of the lessons learned in the class are quite eye-opening.
DiMuzio provided a variety of statistics that she presents in class: 5 percent of alcohol gets absorbed before you even swallow; it takes a full 30 days for your body to recover from just one night of drinking; and the median age that teenagers have their first drink is 11.7. Finnell recalled another lesson from her AOD101 class.
“I remember being told that boys can get beer boobs from drinking too much,” she said.
For the past seven years, there have been ongoing changes to the alcohol and drug program at Fairfield including a smaller class size and a more personalized approach.
In a recent visit to a session of AOD101, the five female and three male students in attendance told their personal stories about drinking. They said most of their partying takes place on the weekends and only a few admitted to drinking during the week.
“I wouldn’t drink unless it was the weekend,” said one freshman student at AOD101, who wished to remain anonymous. “I like to get all of my stuff done first because I prioritize.”
A male sophomore student in the class had similar habits.
“I drank more last year because I wanted to see what it was like,” he said. “This year I wanted to do better in school because my parents are paying a lot of money for me to be here.”
Another male student related a story of how he had entered a room where his friends had been drinking a few minutes prior to the RA’s entrance. He maintained that he was not consuming alcohol.
Many students attending the classes are somewhat responsible, but they said they had just been at the wrong place at the wrong time.
According to DiMuzio, Fairfield students are known for their ability to balance their partying and academics, but because alcohol can bring students together to form lasting friendships, she does not anticipate an end to underage drinking on campus.
DiMuzio hopes the new 30-day survey will provide new information and statistics about the tendencies of current Fairfield students.
Her advice? Nothing in excess. “In moderation, everything is good for your body,” DiMuzio said.
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