Collegiate Times

Thursday, March 15, Columbia University released a report that analyzed substance abuse on college and university campuses. It was entitled
“Wasting the Best and the Brightest: Substance Abuse at America’s Colleges and Universities,” and it detailed the increases in student abuse of alcohol, prescription drugs, and illegal drugs.

According to the report, 49.4 percent of full-time students between 18 and 22 years old binge drink, abuse prescription drugs and/or abuse illegal drugs each month.

The main drug of abuse is alcohol. The report showed that the proportion of students who drink has remained between 65-70 percent since the early 1990s.

Steven Clarke, director of Tech’s College Alcohol Abuse Prevention Center, was not surprised by this statistic.

“I don’t think any administrators would be surprised by these numbers at all,” he said. “At Virginia Tech, approximately 80 percent of students drink. Fifty percent of Tech students drink less than once a week or choose not to drink at all.”

The increase in alcohol consumption percentages stems from the “high drinkers” drinking more, not necessarily more students as a community consuming or beginning to consume more alcohol.

“Tech has always had around 57 percent of students participate in ‘at-risk’ drinking, or binge drinking,” Clarke said.
Binge drinking is the consumption of more than five drinks for men and more than four for women.

Alcohol violations and arrests inevitably increase with increased alcohol abuse. According to the report, the average number of alcohol-related arrests per campus increased 21 percent between 2001 and 2005.

At Tech, there are around 800-900 judicial violations (judicial reviews and off-campus arrests) in a typical school year. Half or more of those violations are from off-campus referrals, which are accepted from all the local police departments. All the violators must participate in an alcohol education class.

From 2003 to 2005 alone, the number of judicial referrals and arrests at Tech increased by 59 percent. For judicial referrals, students must take a class to educate them about their violations.

“Tech is active in alcohol education as well as enforcement,” said Geoff Allen, Crime Prevention and Analysis, Programs, Jeanne Clery Act Officer of the Tech police department.

Some students think that these classes are helpful.

“I think that the classes are effective,” said Hannah Soh, sophomore art history major. “They make students more careful about drinking and are a good deterrent against abusing alcohol.”

Not only are students more at risk for getting alcohol violations as alcohol abuse percentages increase, but they are more at risk of alcohol-related injury and death.

The report showed that there was a six percent increase in student deaths (1,717 deaths) from unintentional alcohol-related injuries from 1998 to 2001.

Tech’s College Alcohol Abuse Prevention Center is adding to its current programs and policies by developing a 21st birthday intervention, which will be implemented this fall. This intervention is a preventative measure against alcohol abuse on students’ 21st birthdays when the pressure to consume large amounts of alcohol may be overwhelming.

“Students sometimes feel pressured and see drinking on their 21st birthdays as a rite of passage,” Clarke said. “The intervention will provide strategies to help them moderate their alcohol consumption. Plus they get a b-day card.”

“Even though the use of alcohol is seen as an inevitable part of student life at Tech, the students, the SGA and the Tech administration are doing and need to keep doing their part to uphold a safe community,” said Liz Hart, SGA public relations director and senior communication major.

Indeed, Tech has what is basically a three strikes policy, according to Edward Spencer, associate vice president for Student Affairs. “There are two categories of offences,” he said. “Minor offenses count as one strike and are charged when the student is not an immediate threat to the health and safety to oneself or others. However, major offenders are those that pose a threat to one’s own health and/or to others, and such offences count as two strikes.”

Three strikes result dismissal from the university.

The report called institutions of higher learning to take responsibility, concluding that they have an obligation to take on the problem of student drinking, smoking and other drug use and abuse.

Allen helps to organize orientation alcohol awareness programs for incoming students to educate them about alcohol as well as many other programs.

When asked what else students may do, Allen said that students can travel twenty minutes away to do a number of things such as rent canoes from squires and travel down the New River or pitch a tent at free camp sites near the Cascades in the National Forest.

“There are many alternatives to alcohol activities,” Allen said. “You just have to get out there.”