Binge Drinking On Americas Campuses Essay -- Binge Drinking College A

Binge Drinking on America's Campuses On any Friday or Saturday night, the average college student is usually drinking, dancing and out having fun. They typically party with friends at fraternity parties, bars, and clubs; and unfortunately most of these students are underage, consuming excessive amounts of alcohol or 'Binge Drinking'. Binge drinking results in several detrimental outcomes, some are even fatal. Today this type of drinking is rampant on educational campuses everywhere. Large and small, urban and rural educational institutions are not left unaffected by this growing trend to binge drink.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Binge drinking is defined as "the consumption of five or more drinks, in a row, on at least one occasion" (NCADI). Several surveys announce that about 1/3rd of high school seniors and 42 percent of college students binge drink on a regular basis(NCADI). Figures such as these are extremely upsetting because one expects institutions of higher learning to be the breeding ground for new leaders and innovative thinkers. Unfortunately, these statistics only make educational campuses appear, as if, everything is a party, much like National Lampoon's Animal House. Animal House is a 1980's movie dedicated to displaying college life and the experience in a college fraternity; it constantly depicted students binge drinking. Harvard University's School of Public Health conducted a College Alcohol study, surveying students at more than 119 colleges. Of those surveyed, 44 percent admitted to having engaged in binge drinking at least once in the two weeks prior to the survey (Booze News). Researchers discovered that white students, age 23 or younger, and members of a fraternity or sorority, on average are more likely to binge drink (Booze News). They also noted that students who were binge drinkers in high school, were three times more likely to binge drink in college (Booze News). "The percentage of students who are binge drinkers is nearly uniform from freshman year to senior year, and over half of the binge drinkers were frequent binge drinkers" (Booze News). Binge drinking has been associated with several alcohol-related problems. The Harvard survey also notes that "a higher percentage of binge drinkers than non-binge drinkers reported having experienced alcohol-related problems, since the beginning of the school year" (Booze News). Frequent bing... .... http://www.health.org/govpubs/phd627/binge.htm ?Booze News Fact Sheet: BINGE DRINKING ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES.? Booze News Newsletter. February 2,1999.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  http://www.cspinet.org/booze/collfact.htm Bormann, Carol A. and Stone, Michael H. ?The Effects of Eliminating Alcohol in a College Stadium: The Folsom Field Beer Ban(University of Colorado at Boulder).? Journal of American College Health, Sept 2001 v50 i2 p81. Brick, John. ?Alcohol Poisoning.? A publication of Intoxikon International. AOL Online. http://members.aol.com/intoxikon/alcohol.poisoning.html Buurma, Christine. ?U. Michigan student's death shows risk of binge drinking.? The Cavalier Daily Online Edition. November 16, 2000. http://www.cavalierdaily.com/Cvarticle.asp?ID=6604&Date=11/16/2000&Keyword=binge+drinking   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Durand, Maria F. ?A Major Turning Point: MIT Case Causes Repercussions Throughout Nation.? ABC News Online. September 18, 2000. http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/mit000915.html ?Media Project Launched to Combat College Binge Drinking.? Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). November 20, 1997. http://www.cspinet.org/new/aluncorn.htm