colleges with drinking culture

Parent Cafe
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<p>Not sure if this has come up before. After reading posts of unhappy kids wanting to transfer out due to a party=drinking atmosphere at their schools and reflecting again on some of stuff that has happened to kids while driinking I wondered if it is possible to figure out where it is less likely to be the common denominator of most parties.
Does anywhere but BYU have a non-alcohol culture? Is it even worth it to try to figure this out?</p>

<p>I figure while I am fretting about money until April I might as well research some issues to consider along the way.</p>

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<p>It is more than worthwhile trying to gain some understanding. I would say it is best to consider this issue very early in the selection process.</p>

<p>This issue has been discussed many times without a lot of satisfactory conclusions. It seems to be very difficult to get good information. Reputation is generally a good indicator and tends to be self-fulfilling.</p>

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<p>Weed, I mean Reed.</p>

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<p>A “non-drinking” culture? Well, any of the religious schools that require one to sign a pledge or whatever not to drink. Beyond that, I think you have degrees of party atmosphere.</p>

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<p>I think it’s vital to evaluate each school individually. And remember that even if the dominant culture on a given campus favors drinking, there will almost certainly be subcultures that don’t drink, and a kid who is comfortable being outside the mainstream will find a niche.</p>

<p>That said, I believe there are three main indicators that a given campus may have an alcohol-infused dominant culture. When all three coalesce, there will almost certainly be plenty of partying. They are: 1) a robust fraternity system, 2) strong emphasis on team sports – especially Division 1 athletics, and 3) rural isolation.</p>

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<p>Here are some tips:</p>

<p>a) Pay attention to the blurbs about each school in the guidebooks, especially Fiske. Read between the lines. If the drinking is prominent enough to warrant a note in the guidebooks (even a code phrase like “work hard/play hard”), you can be sure that getting plastered is a big part of the school’s social scene.</p>

<p>b) Check the percentage of fraternity/sorority membership and try to learn the role these organizations play on campus. They are centers of heavy drinking.</p>

<p>c) Do a comprehensive search on each school’s website for phrases like “binge drinking rate”, “alcohol poisoning”, etc. The national average for binge drinking rate (had four/five drinks in one sitting within the prior two weeks) is about 44% of all college students. Schools with lower drinking cultures will be below that average (as low as 30%). Heaving drinking schools will be much higher (I’ve seen 65% reported). The real problem is not so much with students who meet that definition, but that approximately half of the binge drinkers at a school are “frequent binge drinkers”, more than once a week on average. So, at a heavy binge drinking school, as much as a third of the student body may be drinking heavily two or more times a week. Given the tendency of drunks to disturb others, the heavy bingers really make the campus culture annoying. </p>

<p>d) Do a search of the campus newspaper for binge drinking rate, alcohol poisoning, alcohol hospitalization, etc. If you see large numbers of alcohol poisoning hospitalizations or frequent articles about “the alcohol problem”, that is a red flag. A low binge drinking school might see one alcohol poisoning hospitalization per 1000 students per year. You will see other schools where it is a weekly occurence, often multiples. If you see reports of high school students being hospitalized during campus visits, you can be pretty sure that the drinking culture is not on irresponsible, but self-replicating.</p>

<p>e) If you can’t find the school’s binge drinking rate as a result of your searches, you can call the dean’s office or the health center and ask questions. Most colleges do know their binge drinking rate from surveys.</p>

<p>f) Check the diversity statistics. African American, Asian American, and (to a lesser extent) Latino/a students binge drink as significantly lower rates that white students.</p>

<p>g) Understand that college students drink. The issue is not about students hanging out drinking a six pack of beer. The issue is drinking to the point of blacking out, puking, etc. The nature of drinking at some these colleges is very disturbing.</p>

<p>See these stats from an Ivy League college known for its heavy drinking:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.dartmouth.edu/~evalres/rbs97alc.shtml[/url]”>http://www.dartmouth.edu/~evalres/rbs97alc.shtml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>30% frequent binge drinkers</p>

<p>In the past year: </p>

<p>62% had played drinking games.</p>

<p>51% had vomited because of alcohol use in a private setting (such as a bathroom).</p>

<p>19% had vomited because of alcohol in a public setting.</p>

<p>11% had deliberately vomited so they could drink more.</p>

<p>20% had urinated in a public setting while under the influence of alcohol.</p>

<p>27% had a blackout while drinking.</p>

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<p>I do this for a living, and we have (through the Harvard School of Public Health, which has been studying this for well over a decade) very good data on those things associated with binge drinking. We don’t have a way to reliably weight them. But they include: four-year; residential; rural; co-ed; not religiously affiliated; predominantly white; heavy in spectator sport participation (meaning lots of folks go to games); wealthier student body; students between 18-22 (that is actually an outlier, as the age of the average undergrad in the U.S. is 24.5); and heavier fraternity/sorority participation. If you find schools with many of those characteristics, it is rare that you’ll find lower than average binge drinking rates, unless the school has put a major effort into curbing it (Hobart & Wm. Smith is a major example of that, but there aren’t too many others.) Schools in the northeast and upper midwest tend to be higher; schools in the south and west tend to be lower (west is slightly higher in drug use, though that appears to be changing).</p>

<p>Every school that receives ANY federal funds (that is, all, except maybe Bob Jones, etc.) has a campus alcoho/drug coordinator, often a dean. They have data on drinking rates on their campus, and, theoretically, it is public information. But in many, if not most cases, you have to ask for it. Some schools have made their data public, often as part of social marketing campaigns to curb binge drinking.</p>

<p>In my job, I have lots of data about individual schools (especially in my home state, but elsewhere as well). However, I am bound by confidentiality agreements not to publish it, unless the schools have already made it public. </p>

<p>“there will almost certainly be subcultures that don’t drink, and a kid who is comfortable being outside the mainstream will find a niche.”</p>

<p>There are schools with 65%+ binge drinking rates in the past two weeks where that is in fact quite uncommon, except among small religious (Muslim or fundamentalist Christian) or racial (usually African-American) minority communities who include large numbers of total abstainers.</p>

<p>It should be noted that we know, from experimental data (i.e. actual observation, and controlled experiments) that percentages such as those cited by ID above are in fact underestimates. The main reasons are that: 1) the average drinking student underestimates the number of drinks consumed by 1 (so that the 4-drink drinker, defined as a “non-binger” actually belongs in the binge category); and 2) when asked to pour a standard drink, the median drink poured by an undergraduate is 1.75X the size of the standard. What this means is that the four-drink non-binger is, on average consuming 5 drinks, 1.75X the standard size, or 8.75 drinks - half of them are consuming MORE, and are still classified as non-bingers.</p>

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<p>I think you will find that basically every school has a drinking culture and a non-drinking culture. The differences are mainly in size. The trick is to find a good group of friends for you where ever you are.</p>

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<p>Earlier today, mini mentioned that one of his favorite colleges is Earlham, and I looked it up in my Fisk guide…They don’t appear to have a major alcohol problem there.</p>

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<p>Officially Earlham is dry (i.e. RAs will pour it out if they find it, and there is no drinking even for 21-year-olds allowed.) There is, of course, some drinking, but we are looking at the low end of the spectrum.</p>

<p>“I think you will find that basically every school has a drinking culture and a non-drinking culture. The differences are mainly in size.”</p>

<p>I think that, among schools on the spectrum, you would find the differences greater than the similarities.</p>

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<p>This one might need a little amplfication. The only non-coed schools left are female colleges. Clearly, female-only colleges tend to have lower binge drinking rates.</p>

<p>However, there are many historically co-ed schools that also have lower binge drinking rates (Swarthmore, Oberlin, Pomona come to mind).</p>

<p>My hypothesis is that the correlation is between heavy drinking and the “maleness” of the campus culture. Specifically, a number of the heavy drinking schools are historically male colleges and universities.</p>

<p>An interesting test of this hypothesis would be to look at the drinking rates between an historically male college that went coed (Williams, Amherst, etc.) and an historically female college that went coed at about the same time (Vassar, for example). I would be willing to bet that Vassar has a lower binge drinking rate, perhaps because it is less “male” in its campus culture. </p>

<p>This could explain why drinking tends to be heavier in the northeast, where schools were heavily “all male” during the time frame when their campus cultures were established. In comparison, most of the schools in the South, West, and many in the midwest were founded after it because accepted practice to admit women into higher education.</p>

<p>Just a theory.</p>

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<p>Mini, is there a list of colleges which prohibit alcohol on campus or have similar restrictive policies?</p>

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<p>I found a reference to Earlham’s surveyed binge drinking rate a while back. It was in the 30% to 35% range, quite low. They also had just a few incidences of alcohol hospitalizations.</p>

<p>I think this demonstrates that the binge drinking rate is more a function of campus culture (incuding admissions priorities) than a direct result of enforcement practices. Earlham and Swarthmore have similar binge drinking rates but very different enforcement practices. Swarthmore really doesn’t attempt to enforce any ban on drinking at all and alcohol is freely available at campus parties. Their enforcement focuses on responsible behavior. Earlham enforces a “dry” campus. Similar results from very different approaches. They do, however, have similar campus cultures.</p>

<p>Because drinking is so ingrained in issues of campus culture, it is really challenging for college administrators to change it by regulation or enforcement. For example, Washington & Lee is one of the biggest drinking schools in the country. They’ve tried to go “dry” and I don’t think it’s made one iota of difference. My own theory is that a college wanting to reduce an overheated drinking culture needs to start with the admissions office. I can’t help thinking of a famous quote made by Governor Lester Maddox when I was growing up in Georgia, “We ain’t never gonna have better prisons until we get a better grade of prisoner.”</p>

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<p>Interesting stuff on this thread. Thanks to the contributors. I’ve enjoyed reading it.</p>

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<p>“Mini, is there a list of colleges which prohibit alcohol on campus or have similar restrictive policies?”</p>

<p>I certainly don’t have one! All colleges have restrictive policies of one kind or another; the question is how they enforce them.</p>

<p>I don’t entirely agree with ID about the admissions office (or it’s a "yes, but…). The new totally dry campus policy is having a MAJOR impact at the University of Oklahoma (and, though I don’t have data yet, I hear University of Georgia.) It DOES push the heavy drinkers off campus - yes, they do get drunk in town, and the town police aren’t happy about their new enforcement responsibilities), but it has made by all accounts a really, really major difference in campus life.</p>

<p>I have not seen a binge drinking rate for Earlham, though I wouldn’t be surprised at a low rate. I think the major difference between it and Swarthmore (having visited both, and having friends at both, among the faculty) is that at Earlham, most of it occurs off-campus. One can view that as good or as bad (I can argue it both ways), but it results in a different campus culture.</p>

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<p>At one time, I thought it would be helpful to read the official policies. I quickly realized those are all but useless contributions from the lawyers.</p>

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<p>In reference to the poster’s question–“I wondered if it is possible to figure out where it is less likely to be the common denominator of most parties. Does anywhere but BYU have a non-alcohol culture?”–I was just making the point that even at the heavier party schools, there will be a non-drinking culture and many students who don’t drink. Cut out the schools known for heavy partying, and the number of students who engage in other activities only increases. I believe the majority of non-drinkers can be happy and find peers at any number of schools.</p>

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<p>Here’s a little personal testimony from a school that doesn’t have a big drinking culture:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.salon.com/it/col/guest/1998/09/21guest.html”>www.salon.com/it/col/guest/1998/09/21guest.html</a> </p>

<p>(My child is, unfortunately, probably too much of a drinker at a school not known for that. I think she would drink more elsewhere, though. I also have a virtual niece who is happy as a clam as a complete abstainer in substance-free housing at one of the most notorious co-ed, jocky, rural, wealthy, young gin-mill LACs around.)</p>

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<p>Back in the 1950s (before anybody cared about drunk driving), Swarthmore enforced a dry campus as well. According to alumni stories I’ve read, there were well-known party houses around the area. I think the issue of drinking and driving played a role in changing the policy.</p>

<p>There are some policies, related to the way housing is assigned and especially the integration of freshmen and upper class students, that play a role in keeping a damper on heavy drinking by preventing “kids gone wild” critical mass. So, it’s not entirely laissez-faire. I also believe that the college quietly invites the local police to station a patrol car outside of the major party venues on Saturday nights. Swarthmore students are well aware that leaving a party falling down drunk, puking, or fighting will likely result in a run in with the law (kinda like in the real world).</p>

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<p>With respect to whether there is a list of schools that have a non-alcohol culture - or at least less of an alcohol culture - what about the “Colleges That Change Lives” schools? I honestly don’t know enough about them, one way or another, but perhaps these are good schools to start out looking at?</p>