Daily Lobo Column
In May, the Harvard School of Public Health announced the results of its 1999 College Alcohol Study.
Dr. Henry Weschler, the study’s author, issued a national press release that spun the new data negatively on one particular measure of student drinking that had increased slightly compared to its 1993 results.
Newspapers across the nation promptly added to the negative hype with alarming tales of “binge drinking” and alcohol poisoning that suggested a nation of out-of-control college students.
Whether out of ignorance or convenience, these stories failed to cite the study’s results from the Core Institute Study and the 20-year federally funded Monitoring the Future Study, which indicate that college drinking is at its lowest level in 20 years!
All three of these large-scale studies consistently found that the majority of students drink moderately, if they drink at all, and that most practice protective behaviors when consuming alcohol.
This is certainly the case at UNM where, according to random, anonymous responses of undergraduate students to the 1999 Harvard Study and the spring 2000 Core Institute study, nearly 70 percent of UNM students average between zero and four drinks per week.
Although 63 percent of UNM students responding to the Core Institute Survey had suffered a hangover within the past year, the majority of students regularly avoided drinking in a manner that could lead to significant problems. Sixty-seven percent of UNM students said they had never missed a class due to drinking, 55.4 percent had never driven under the influence of alcohol and 87 percent indicated that their use of alcohol had never caused them to be hurt or injured.
The image of drunken students brawling and mauling each other may make for hot-selling newspapers and magazines, but it obviously does so at the expense of the student majority and the truth. This persistent sensationalism has fueled misperceptions in the university and general community to the point that “everyone in college drinks and gets drunk” has become a widely held and unchallenged tenet despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Students queried last spring in the Core Institute Survey portray a prime example of such a misperception. When students were asked, “How often do you think the average student on your campus uses alcohol?” respondents thought only 37.6 percent of their fellow students drank once a week or less, when 80.2 percent reported drinking once a week or less during the past year!
This focus on a minority of students who abuse alcohol poses a potential danger for us all. It can disempower the majority who choose to drink moderately, if at all, and generate a false sense of normalcy for those who use alcohol problematically.
A healthy community needs a balanced approach that promotes the actual social norms and addresses the incidence and the impact of alcohol abuse.
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Such abuse, regardless of its prevalence, creates a plethora of problems for abusers and the people around them that cannot be ignored. Even second-hand effects, such as cleaning up after a drunken roommate, losing sleep to the antics of an intoxicated neighbor or repairing damage from alcohol-related acts of vandalism can produce a negative impact on the quality of our lives.
The graver consequences of alcohol abuse — sexual assault, drunk driving and alcohol poisoning — can turn lives upside down forever.
Every UNM student, faculty and staff member plays a vital role in creating a healthy campus environment. Spreading the word that the majority of UNM students drink moderately, if at all, is a good place to begin. Educating yourself and others about the hazards of excessive drinking, both the primary and second-hand effects, is another important step.
Ultimately, we must be a little more willing to step out of our “comfort zone” to intervene with those in need. A caring conversation regarding a person’s excessive drinking or drug use, stepping forward for a friend who is too drunk to resist sexual advances, a close physical check or a 911 call for a “passed out” individual we cannot awaken are all ways that we can care for one another and our community.
Jill Anne Yeagley earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Nebraska and her master’s from the University of Houston.
