When I walked into my first college party, I saw that there were bottles all over the place. I noticed Ciroc, Patron, 1800, and many other alcoholic beverages. I saw one kid in the corner throwing up, another kid stumbling, and a large group of students playing beer pong. College students often refer to this as the “Turn Up,” defined as acting crazy due to the consumption of large amounts of alcohol. They believe that if there is no alcohol at a college party, then it is not considered enjoyable. These students like to live life on the edge and not worry about the next morning.
It becomes a cycle and within the next night, they are partaking in these activities all over again. Taking shots to the head and filling their bodies with alcohol because most of them do not care about the danger they are putting themselves into; this is the life of a college student. At a young age, I experienced family members who were alcoholics. I saw how alcohol turned them into different people and as I walked through college parties, I noticed how alcohol was changing these students’ lives.
Some of these students I saw stumbling drunk didn’t even look like kids who would even put a cup of beer or liquor up to their mouth and it was slowly ruining their lives. I believe alcohol should be banned from colleges because of all of the negative effects that may occur, which is something I have experienced in my life. Coming into college, I learned more about the danger students put themselves in by binge drinking, which is the consumption of an excessive amount of alcohol in a short period of time.
When indulging in alcohol, the outcome is never good. Binge drinking has outcomes such as students having fatal injuries and also result in students being assaulted or sexually assaulted. Each year, about 1,825 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die from alcohol-related injuries (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism). In 1999, “over 2 million of the 8 million college students in the United States drove under the influence of alcohol…. ver 600,000 were hit or assaulted by another student who had been drinking” (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism). According to a survey in 2009, conducted by the National Institutes of Health, “Four out of five college students drink at least occasionally during their college career…. and 40 percent of college student drinkers admitted to binge drinking at least once within two weeks of taking the survey” (Drug Watch). Other than death being a result of binge drinking in college, plenty of students are also assaulted each year.
About 700,000 students around the ages of 18 to 24 are assaulted each year by a student who has been drinking and over 97,000 students are victims of alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape (National Institutes of Health). Drinking has also led students to having serious health problems and sometimes it results in students thinking about committing suicide. At a typical university, more than 150,000 students develop health issues from binge drinking and about 1. 5 percent of the students try to commit suicide due to drinking (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism).
Each year, college drinking may lead to death, assault, and even a serious health issues. This paper explores the reasoning of why college students don’t believe binge drinking is a problem to the community and to their personal beings. I begin by considering the reasons why college students tend to drink excessively, the problem universities face when students are binge drinking, and also examples of schools who has taken the lead to ban alcohol on campus. The paper then shifts to what students tend to believe and how they feel about alcohol bans.
It will also propose a solution for the students who have an alcohol addiction so that they can stop drinking. Even though alcohol is illegal for students under the age of 21, alcohol still seems to find its way onto a college campus. College students’ typical reason for drinking is to get rid of stress due to class and also exams (Drug Watch). Students may also deal with relationship issues or some type of condition they are facing, such as depression, so they abuse alcohol in order to numb the pain they are feeling inside and it is frequently accepted by society (Drug Watch).
Some students also just tend to believe that drinking is a part of becoming a college student. For instance, it has been known that student-athletes believe drinking is just a normal behavior of being in college (Milroy 68). Students who are finding it hard to adapt to the college experience and make friends tend to drink just so they can become more social and interact with others who are also intoxicated.
In “Test and Study Worry and Emotionality in the Prediction of College Students’ Reasons for Drinking: An Exploratory Investigation,” it says “As young adults experience psychological difficulties, they may lose the motivation to conform to societal expectations and may search for ways to increase intrapsychic satisfaction with the self” (Kieffer 60). With this being stated, it shows that when student lose that confidence of being outgoing and making friends, they turn towards alcohol to fix their social problems.
With the reasons of why college students drink being stated, universities also face issues when the students are constantly drinking. Due to students drinking, the universities has to face issues with students breaking the alcohol, dropping out of school, and they also have to deal with the death of students on campus. About 25 percent of college students miss class, fall behind, do poorly on exams or papers, and just receiving lower grades overall due to them binge drinking (National Institute on Alcohol and Alcoholism).
In “Excessive Alcohol Consumption and Related Consequences among College Students,” it says “based on a national prospective study, reported binge drinkers in college were more likely to drop out of college… ” (White and Hingson 9). Universities also supply all students with handbooks about drinking on campus and how alcohol is not allowed. Even though some college campuses prohibit alcohol on campus inside of the residence halls, students still tend to go behind the university back and find ways to obtain alcohol which results in a high percentage of students’ binge drinking (Shaffer 3).
As mentioned on how there is about 2,000 students who in counter death on campus due to drinking, the universities also has to deal with the loss of a student. A reason for the death of these students is that around campus, there is a lack of non-traffic fatalities to keep track of students who walk the streets intoxicated (White and Hingson 9). For instance, a kid named Philip Dhanens had suffered brain problems and died after binge drinking at a fraternity house on the campus of Fresno State (Huff Post).
With these issues being brought upon these universities, there has been schools that are strictly against alcohol on campus. In the United States, there are about 26 universities that are dry campuses. A dry campus is the term used for the banning of alcohol at colleges and universities, regardless of the owner’s age or intention to consume it elsewhere. Colleges such as Baylor University, Bloomsburg University, Anderson University, and more are all against “wet campuses. ” For instance, Dartmouth College took the stand for banning alcohol on campus due to extreme behaviors (Examiner).
