Collateral Damage: How does a rampant party scene hurt those on the sidelines?

College Life
1

<p>In a new book Party School: Crime, Campus and Community Karen G. Weiss, an associate professor of sociology at West Virginia University, discusses the party culture on many American campuses, how it’s escalated, and why it’s allowed to exist. (See [Book</a> details campus and community consequences of party school culture | Inside Higher Ed](<a href=“http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/12/03/book-details-campus-and-community-consequences-party-school-culture]Book”>http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/12/03/book-details-campus-and-community-consequences-party-school-culture)) </p>

<p>She also focuses on the “ripple effect” of extensive partying that can cause students who aren’t directly involved, as well as campus neighbors, to change behaviors or make choices they might not otherwise make due to the surrounding melee. </p>

<p>Have YOU (current college students or parents) experienced this “ripple effect,” which Ms. Weiss also calls the “secondhand harms” of a party-school environment?</p>

<p>Have you made decisions (everything from whether or not you attend a football game to where you study and live) in order to avoid the fallout from party-related intoxication, noise, and destruction?</p>

2

<p>My roommate is a heavy partier/drinker, I am not. She has put me through many tough nights and illegal situations. I’m switching rooms because of her at the end of the semester. When I talked to campus PD about my situation they said underage drinking could not be enforced on campus. What a joke, I’m taking out loans to get an education and having to deal with a binge drinking roommate and all of her low life friends.</p>

3

<p>Nope .</p>