| Subject: Exploratory Essay- College Binging |
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Brianne Martin
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Date Posted: 10:44:41 06/08/04 Tue
Brianne Martin
May 21, 2004
English 101 8:50-8:50 am
Exploratory Essay
College Binging!
Many freshmen come to college thinking this is their break through from home; their independence. Students think that drinking is a rite of passage, but alcohol affects students health and academic potential. There are so many students who don’t binge drink and even though not as many college students drink today as have in the past, there are the few that binge drink and college presidents agree that binge drinking is the most serious problem on college campuses. Why do so many college students binge drink?
On fifth of college students are not heavy drinkers. These students abstain from alcohol use. The number of students that abstain from alcohol increased from 16% in 1993 to 19% in 2001. Even though the number of students who have abstained from alcohol has increased the number of students that drink heavily has risen from 19.7% in 1993 to 22.8% in 2001. Nevertheless more than three quarters of students in residence halls, fraternities or sororities have experienced a secondary effect. Students who abstain from light or moderate use of alcohol are usually affected by those who drink heavily. I have personally experienced this. I left my friend in my room while I was going to the bathroom. When I came back I found a guy going to the bathroom on my dorm room floor. He was extremely intoxicated, and the next morning he didn’t recall what had happened the night before. This is an example of secondary affects. Other things that can happen are people getting property damaged by an intoxicated person, deaths due to inappropriate behavior and driving under the influence, getting less sleep, having to take care of a drunk person, assaulted or being raped.
Binge drinking can also lead to health problems, such as cirrhosis and various types of cancer; it causes students to damage property, miss classes, have hangovers, experience injuries and not really caring about what you are doing. When dealing with such behavior, anything can happen.
Research shows that alcohol loosens and promotes relaxation in correlation with increased drinking. Alcohol related problems come about because students want to feel that degree of acceptance. For example, those who binge drink fewer than three times a week enjoy more intimate relationships, than those who do binge drink more and those who drink more frequently.
Many college students feel that they need to do it because all of their friends are doing it or the people around them are doing it. Peer pressure is hard to get away from and just forces students to try new things just to show that they are a part of the crowd.
Another reason why college students do it is because it is part of the college culture. Before you go off to college and start your freshmen year off the main thing you hear about is all the parties and how fun it is to go out and drink and have a good time. Mom and dad aren’t around to stop you from doing what you want.
The way college campuses’ try and prevent drinking is not very effective. Here at Central Washington University they do have cops out all the time driving around campus looking for unusual things and people that are intoxicated. I believe that cops do help with students that are intoxicated but once you get in trouble I don’t really think that it does anything. The student usually gets over it and keeps on doing it. They don’t seem to do much except put signs up around school with statistics of what drinking does to you, how it affects you and how many drinks people usually consume. As a freshmen at Central Washington University they have a Wildcat Welcome Weekend; during this time you move all your stuff in and learn a lot about the campus. They also have a class where you go and fill out a survey about drinking and how many drinks you usually consume, how often you drink and when you normally drink and why. They usually post the statistics later but people don’t really pay attention to them. If you get in trouble for alcohol you do have to go to a meeting called “prime for life”. At this meeting they talk about alcohol and go over what happens if you do get caught as a minor, how alcohol affects the choices you make and several other things. At the end of the class you take a test that you have to pass to show that you went to the class. I think that this is a good idea because nobody really wants to sit in a class and listen to things that they have already heard about many of times.
I think that college campuses should try and do more to prevent binge drinking. In a way I think it is kind of impossible because as students in college it is hard to control each and everyone of us and we are old enough to be responsible for our own actions. The only thing I think that could possibly be done to help prevent the amount of binge drinking is to make students attend a mandatory class everyday for the entire week. . I think this would make them thing more carefully about things. You know that the last thing a college student would want to do is go in a class room and sit and listen to someone talk about alcohol and all the consequences there are to drinking. Personally I think it would be very boring and would be repetitive. Students have heard the consequences over and over and don’t really want to hear it again. The consequences that can occur to you while you drink are very serious and can lead to life changing situations. 1,400 college students die from alcohol related causes while 1,100 of them are due to drinking and driving and 2.1 million drive while under the influence. 400,000 have unprotected sex while 100,000 are to intoxicated to know they consented to sexual intercourse. Due to the consumption of alcohol 1.2-1.5% attempt suicide and 150,000 develop a health problem related to alcohol.
I think some things that could be done to try and help with college binging are tougher law enforcement, schools providing more information and treatment about it, parents talking to their kids about it at a younger age, and students just thinking about is more and having common sense. I do believe that here at Central Washington University the police do a good job of trying to protect students as well as other people in this town. They enforce the laws very well which I believe helps students to try and make better decision about what they do. They do a good job going around campus looking for drunks doing stupid things, looking out for parties and wandering through the dorms to look of suspicious things. The school has a class that every freshman has to take called University 101. In this class you learn more about the school. I feel that in this class you should learn more about consumption of alcohol and the consequences, this way students get a better understanding and think about it more often. When kids are going in to middle school I think that it would be a good time for parents to start talking about the consequences of alcohol and drug use. Middle school was about the time I started hearing about all that kind of stuff. I was never interested in it but heard a lot about it. When you are young and hear things like that you want to experience it and ever so often the first time you do it you get in trouble. If you think about it hearing about something, trying and getting caught is really not worth it, especially because of all the consequences you have to deal with. This is why at a younger age and being informed of things like this are a good idea because you hear about the consequences that can occur when you do it.
My opinion to this topic is very simple. I do think that in college many students do drink and that it is a part of college life. I think people do it to have fun and socialize. It makes it so some people are more open and not really care what they do. I think that some people do have serious drinking problems and those are the ones that need to be taken care of and watched. This can lead to health problems in the future. I know people who do go out and party every night. I believe that this is their choice but that every night is going way to far. Alcohol does affect the way you do in school no matter what people think. For example, if you go out on a Wednesday night and wake up the next morning with a hangover you are most likely not going to go to class or go to class and not be able to focus. One of my friends went to a school in California. At that school it was known as a “wet campus” because the school put on parties and alcohol was served to them. I think that in a way this is a good idea. When a school puts on a party like that I think students would act more responsibly and students wouldn’t have to hide it. I do believe alcohol makes people act differently which affects the decisions they make. In the end I really did enjoy researching this topic and did learn more about drinking.
Works Cited
Higher Education Center. 17 June. 2003
http://www.edc.org/hec/pubs/factsheets
What you need to know about Alcoholism and Substance Abuse. 2004
http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/alerts/l/blnaa29.htm
Alcohol Policies Project. March 2002
http://www.cspinet.org.booze/collfact1.htm
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