Students put “High” in Higher Education
By Ameshia Cross
Staff Writer

ISSUE: 05/01/07 > NEWS > Students put “High” in Higher Education

Among the most prominent challenges facing universities today is alcohol and drug abuse. According to a report by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, 49 percent of full-time college students binge drink in conjunction with use of prescription and illegal drugs.

The study also found that 1.8 million full-time students meet the medical criteria for abuse dependence.

Belmont is a dry campus, meaning that no alcohol or drugs are permitted on the property, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it is so. Resident assistants are in charge of reporting any suspicion of alcohol or drug abuse to Belmont police. If alcohol is found on a student’s person or within their living quarters, it is confiscated and disposed of properly.

Belmont Residence Life officials are aware that no campus is “dry.” Thrailkill RA Hannah Miller said, “Students find ways to bring alcohol into the apartments are most of them go unpunished unless someone turns them in or they have a wild party,”

Belmont Security officials interviewed declined to answer questions regarding the issue.

According to the most recent Office of Campus Security Annual Security Information Report, there were 23 liquor violations on campus in 2005. Two of those resulted in arrests. There were also 13 drug violations, nine of which resulted in arrests.

“Alcohol and substance abuse on college campuses attract great attention,” Catherine Passananti, fraternity Risk Management and development chair and C.R.A.W.L. program coordinator at Eastern Illinois University said. Passananti consults with Belmont fraternities and sororities to prevent substance abuse.

Eastern Illinois University, an institution of 12,000 students, recently implemented an alcohol intervention program titled C.R.A.W.L (Choosing Responsibly And Within Limits).

“The aim of the program is not to convince students to stop drinking. The aim of the program is to help students realize the effects of their drug and alcohol-related behavior on all students, staff, and other individuals who surround them,” Passananti said. The C.R.A.W.L. program’s goal is to make participants aware of the effect their drinking behaviors have on others.

The federal government is becoming increasingly concerned with the rising level of substance abuse among college students as well. “Under any circumstances, acceptance by administrators, trustees, professors and parents of this college culture of alcohol and other drug abuse is inexcusable,” Joseph A. Califano Jr, CASA’s chairman/president and former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, said in a press release.

A poll of 25 students in the Beaman Student Life Center resulted in 15 students admitting to having consumed and stored alcohol on campus and never being caught.

Statistical data shows that nationwide the proportion of college students’ abuse of drugs and alcohol has sharply risen:

Surveys conducted by CASAColumbia.org found that ,between 1993 and 2001, the proportion of students who frequently binge drink is up 16 percent; who drink on 10 or more occasions in a month, up 25 percent; who get drunk at least three times a month, up 26 percent; and who drink to get drunk, up 21 percent.

The CASA Columbia findings also said, between 1993 and 2005, the proportion of students abusing prescription drugs increased:

• 343 percent for opioids like Percocet, Vicodin and OxyContin;
• 93 percent for abuse of stimulants like Ritalin and Adderall;
• 450 percent for tranquilizers like Xanax and Valium;
• 225 percent for sedatives like Nembutal and Seconal.

Between 1993 and 2005, the proportion of students who:

• Use marijuana daily more than doubled to 310,000.
• Use cocaine, heroin, and other illegal drugs (except marijuana), is up 52 percent to 636,000.

The increase in substance abuse has also increased its consequences.

Consequences of substance abuse on college campuses include:

• 1,717 deaths from unintentional alcohol-related injuries in 2001, up six percent from 1998;
• A 38 percent increase from 1993 to 2001 in the proportion of students injured as a result of their own drinking;
• A 21 percent increase from 2001 to 2005 in the average number of alcohol-related arrests per campus. In 2005, alcohol-related arrests constituted 83 percent of campus arrests;
• 97,000 students were victims of alcohol-related rape or sexual assaults in 2001;
• 696,000 students were assaulted by a student who had been binge drinking in 2001.

What drives students to make such destructive decisions? According to Passananti, “It is my experience talking with students who have had a fair amount of judicial issues need to know someone really cares about their well being. Students sometimes get stuck in downward spirals and can't seem to find their way out. Many others just feel drinking is a natural part of college and everyone does it.”