Binge
Drinking on College Campuses
Am I stressed? Am I under the impression to be cool like my
peers? Will I not be the awesome person my roommate thinks I am if I don’t
attend this party? These are some questions college students ask themselves before
they make their decision to binge drink. Binge drinking is starting to become a
big problem on college campuses but do the students or families or staff
members realize this type of behavior is bad. The drinking starts to begin when
student feel high levels of stress, or the need to be the “cool kid”. Students feel
as if they can’t take the pain of the stress unless they have some type of
alcohol in their system to help them better function or they won’t have the
social life they intend to have. The students don’t realize how bad this can be
from taking one drink to loving the feeling of stress free to drinking
multiples of drinks and how it may or may not affect their lives today but can
take a bad turn later on in the future. Every
day we ae seeing more and more cases of binge drinking and how young people’s
lives are taken away.
History
Binge drinking is when a person drinks more than five
drinks in a short period of time. In some cases, it predicts that binge
drinking in students sometimes can start in high school and carry its way to
college. Binge drinking is starting to increase over time and we don’t even
realize what kind of harm or problems come along with binge drinking. The drinking has been around for a long time
now, but the binge drinking in college campuses starting occurring in the 1990’s.
In 1993, surveys and questionaries’ were being completed by college students at
universities and results come out to be that overall 44% of the students binged
(Weschleretal). In many other articles, it sums up the same time frame as 1993
and has the same conception. Once there were drunk driving and rape cases that
started to develop, the higher people tried to prevent these events. In 2001,
the cases got more serious and the families of binge drinking and staff members
started having interventions. (1).
Binge Drinking is
more likely to occur when a student is feeling either stress or trying to keep
up with he’s/her peers. Some of the three biggest stressors is including academic,
interpersonal, and developmental (e.g., making decisions about the future,
taking responsibility
for time allocation,
balancing priorities) (Pedersen). When the student might feel the most stress
is when the student is failing behind in certain classes or has a big project or
exam due and they wait until last minute to complete. The levels of stress
start developing for the student because they are starting to over think about
what their parents might say or their teachers. Students also start thinking
what happens to me if I don’t pass these courses, and making them feel as like
what’s the point of college anyways. Among college students,
drinking to cope is a fairly common behavioral response, emerging as both a short-term
reaction to situational stress and a long-term coping style that remains a strong
predictor of heavy alcohol use even when other influences on drinking are controlled
for (1). In that statement, it provides some evidence that students tend to
cope with binge drinking to get a better feeling about their self.
Another
problem with binge drinking is students feel the need to “keep up” or “live the
college lifestyle”. Many freshman students that attend college their first year
don’t really go to college for the
academics but to feel the vibe of the “college life”. Some universities
give off an image of social life and not really focus on the real college life
of the studying and how serious the work load really is being a college
student. The image could send off different signals to someone so new to
college as like advertising or commercials that show a group of students
hanging at the coffee shop down the road chatting it up or how it’s important
to have a social life outside of the academics. Colleges advertise what the
town has to offer such as the scenery or social events that are going on while
you’re not in class. The thing they are not advertising a lot is the hard part
of college. Colleges are not advertising the work load that is expected from
professors or the participation of being in class every day. For example, universities don’t put Betty
studying and going over flashcards in her dorm room or Peter on the computer
majority of the day after class. This is the real lives of college students and
what college really brings to the table and how much of an extra mile you might
have to take to get that diploma. Some students may think it’s fairly easy but
don’t know the real outcome and that problem could put the stress levels high
and that’s when the binge drinking begins.
Binge drinking increases at college parties on campuses. Where
do these parties come from? These kinds of all year-round parties mostly come
from fraternities and sororities. To
even begin or be a part of a sonorities your most likely task is to throw a
party, where the binge drinking begins. In the article” Correlates of College Student binge
drinking”, it states that a former Harvard student gave questionaries’ to 140 college campuses and most of the students that binge drink were fraternity
or sorority (Weschleretal). Fraternities and sororities are one of the biggest
problems with binge drinking because every party that they throw are senior
students that pressure the younger ones or the new ones into taking over
excessive drinks or shots to prove that they can “hang” with the older ones.
What these college students don’t realize is that these habits can lead to
dangerous consequences as to affecting their college academic or drunk driving,
alcohol poisoning.
College students
don’t understand when they binge drink who it might affect;they are thinking oh
yeah, I’m feeling cool now or my stress relieve is gone. Students don’t realize
the precautious of their actions from binge drinking until it’s too late. For
an example, if the student binge drinks all night long and has a big test in
the morning, do you think that student will wake up refreshed and ready for the
test? No. That could lead to serious problems in universities because some
colleges don’t let students finish out if they show lack of wellness or poor
effort in class. Any college student that is going to college and has plans for
himself shouldn’t waste his whole future on a night of fun. Small but
interesting effects link binging with having a b average or lower in grades (Weschleretal).
What students fail to realize as well is that binge drinking affects the lives
of the students at the school as well, if you’re out parting every night and
drinking way more then you should, you’re not really getting the work done that
is needed to complete on time. Binge drinking also comes along with poor
wellness and health, which could still have an effect on participation in
college courses. Students that were asked “how important is it for you to
participate in the following activities in college?” answered “very important “or
“important” regards to parties (Weschlertal). This is an epidemic that needs to
be changed or solved.
Another big issue that binge drinking effects is that students might not think so much about how it
effects the community. We don’t hear much about the stories that lay along the
college campuses but when a school loses a student over something alcohol
relative that effects the families, the friends and students, the town and the
community as one. Losing someone could be hard on anyone and losing someone
that you knew had him whole life ahead of them is sad when the family and
friends and community and town could have prevented it.
Examples
Some students who go out and binge drink sometimes drink
at the most popular college spots or vacations and for spring break. Some of
the college cities and towns love throwing parties for spring break week. It’s a week of fun and a week of no school
and college students take opportunity of that and believe it’s the time to party
hard. Some students don’t know that they could lose people they care about that
week as well.
Twenty-year-old Kyle Lamb a college student was found
dead and unresponsive in Panama City Beach, Florida, of alcohol poisoning. Lamb
and his friends were camping at a popular site for spring breakers in that
area. “They went out to the beach, and lamb wasn’t in the shape where he could
go out” said Whitman. Whitman is one of Kyle’s friends that attended spring
break with him and he said in the interview “I came back to check on him a few
times and taking care of him before we went out”. When Lamb’s friends returned
to the campsite around 8:30 p.m., Lamb wasn’t breathing and they called 9-1-1.
The paramedics performed CPR, but Lamb died at the hospital around 1:00 a.m. The
close-knit community is in shock.” We’re just really going to miss this kid,”
Brunk said. Brunk is one of the coaches at Lamb’s school. “He’s such a big part
of our school family and our family here in Potterville (Kantner). It can be difficult
to read this article about this young intelligent college student who had his
whole life ahead of him still and his life is gone.
In 2011 my classmate Castillo was a young and brave high
school student. She was the high light of high school; she was in every program
or social event that was there. She had a lot of friends and a lot of support.
She was a senior and the top of her class. One night she decided to go out with
some of her friends and at 3:00 A.M. she crashed her vehicle and it rolled off
the highway and caught on fire. The next morning, we all got the devastating news
that one of our classmates had passed away. The next morning at school it
wasn’t the same; everyone was walking the halls with tears in their eyes and
walking very slow. Not a single person wanted to be at school that day. The
next few weeks wasn’t so much better with the school putting on memorials and
attending the funeral and giving our respects to the family as a class. I still
can remember the day I walked up and hugged Castillo’s mom; it was like the
whole world crumbled in my arms that day. I will never forget that day because
no mother should have to feel that feeling of losing a child so young. More
weeks passed on, and our classroom just wasn’t the same with her pretty smile
or goofy personality. Later on, the police cases came back and the accident
occurred because of alcohol use. No one
knows what it means or feels like to lose a friend over something that could
have been prevented. Maybe if Castillo didn’t drink as much or got a ride home
with someone sober, she could still be here now.
Solutions
Binge Drinking is being taking so lightly in college
campuses that college students don’t realize that binge drinking can lead to
serious problems for the future. For a better college experience and outcome,
binge drinking needs to stop, and students who have a drinking problem need to
get helped. Understanding the motivations for binge drinking can be argued as
being
the first of several
steps towards changing the culture of binge drinking(Coleman,Cater). Some
things campuses should try out for binge drinkers is maybe a school group that
has activities for the students on the weekends that doesn’t involve partying
or drinking. During the time being with the group, maybe the students can have
group talks and during those talks that can express what actually motivates
them to binge drink, and once those issues are out they can minimize the
issues. In the article “Changing Culture of Young People’s binge drinking: from
motivation to practical solutions,” it gives information for how students can
achieve help and get started on a healthier college life style. Colleges across
Caperphilly were getting questionaries’ with three to five questions to see
which students have similarities in binge drinking. In total, the 40 young people were recruited
from nine different sites and locations across Caerphilly County, all
young people participating were of White ethnicity, reflecting the 99.1% White
ethnic composition of the study area and all were regular (on average weekly)
binge drinkers (Office for National Statistics, 2001) (Coleman, Cater). Binge
drinking is increasing all over the U.S. at different campuses, and by students
taking these questionnaires are making them realize that binge drinking is becoming
a problem in their lives.
Some
other solutions are to help students get part time not heavy job load, to
decrease the changes of binge drinking. Taking out those extra hours on the
weekends could maybe minimize the possible of binge drinking. The methods above
have shown that 25% of students are affected by binge drinking and trying to change
their drinking ways for healthy life’s and a better future for college.
Camus and Absurdity
Albert
Camus had a little rebellion in himself.
In 1949, Camus wrote the novel The Rebel, and in that novel he expresses
how he differences revolt and revolution. During this time, Camus would
probably best believe that binge drinking was student’s ways to express themselves
and didn’t seem it harmful in Camus’s eyes. He would have thought binge
drinking as a challenge someone would get over and could get over; he always
thought of the bigger picture. Camus would have not thought that binge drinking
was an epidemic in time because he rebelled against certain things, and he
would most likely rebelled against this topic and would think it’s not a big
deal. Camus said about the book The Rebel
that he saw “revolt as a peaceful evolution process of leadership but not
violence.”( Camus,Albert) Camus would rebel and go ahead with binge drinking and
believe the outcome comes from the person who decided to binge drink. He would
hope not for the worst but that individual is upon himself.
Conclusion
Binge drinking is an epidemic that
is a big problem for college students. College students go to college to get a
better future for themselves and to get a diploma to get a good paying job. Is
taking that one drink or few drinks worth it all? Was it worth your time? Or,
was it worth your career or life? Binge drinking shouldn’t be the reason you’re
not allowed back at a college campus Don’t let one night of binge drinking take
that away from you.
Work
Cited
“A
Text Message Program as a Booster to in-Person Brief Interventions for Mandated
College Students to Prevent Weekend Binge Drinking.” Taylor & Francis, www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07448481.2016.1185107
Camus,
Albert. The Rebel. Penguin Books, 2013
Coleman,
Lester, and Suzanne Cater. “Changing the Culture of Young People's Binge
Drinking: From Motivations to Practical Solutions.” Drugs: Education,
Prevention and Policy, vol. 14, no. 4, 2007, pp. 305–317.,
doi:10.1080/09687630601070878.
Kantner,
Shannon. “LCC Student Dies On Spring Break Vacation.” Headlines,
www.wilx.com/home/headlines/LCC-Student-Dies-On-Spring-Break-Vacation--196212771.html.
Accessed 26 July 2017.Work Cited
Pedersen , Daphne E. “Which stressors increase the
odds of college binge drinking?” College student journal , vol. 51, no. 1,
2017, pp. 129–141.
“The Rebel Quotes by Albert Camus.” By Albert Camus, www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/486408-l-homme-r-volt.
Wechsler, Henry, et al. “Trends in College Binge
Drinking During a Period of Increased Prevention Efforts: Findings from 4
Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study Surveys: 1993–2001.”
Journal of American College Health, vol. 50, no. 5, 2002, pp. 203–217.,
doi:10.1080/07448480209595713.
.Wechsler, H., et al. “Correlates of college student
binge drinking .” American Public Health Assocaition , vol. 85, no. 7, 1995.
Wechsler,
Henry, et al. “What Colleges Are Doing About Student Binge Drinking A Survey of
College Administrators.” Journal of American College Health, vol. 48, no. 5,
2000, pp. 219–226., doi:10.1080/07448480009599308.
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