JJ
Friday, October 2, 1998
The University Daily Kansan
Section A·Page 3
Culture promotes teen drinking
By Kelli Rayborn and Steph Brewer
Kansas staff writers
For many U.S. students, college social life is a '90s version of Animal House — wild parties, drunken nights and hangovers.
However, many cultures attach a negative stigma to this behavior.
Clement Gulley, visiting from Marselles, France, said that public intoxication was not socially acceptable in his country.
"To get drunk all the time is not good for your image," he said.
John Stewart, Blue Springs, Mo. senior, has spent significant amounts of time in both Brazil and Argentina.
"I got the idea that if you went to a restaurant, you could pick out young Americans, because they were ordering beers and everyone else was ordering cokes," Stewart said. "I think it's considered shameful in Argentina to get drunk in public."
Henry Wechsler, lecturer on social psychology at Harvard University, said that college alcohol use depended on habits formed in high school.
"Many start bingeing in high school and continue in college," he
said. "It often reflects usage patterns of parents and/or high school peers."
Wechsler's recent study of college binge drinking has focused national media attention on the campus alcohol issue. His research showed that 42.7 percent of college students were
binge drinkers and that 20.7 percent were frequent binge drinkers.
Wechsler said that the youth in this country needed to learn
about responsible drinking from an early age at home.
"It should be by example," he said.
"Do as I do, not just as I say."
Teens instead are aware that their experiences with alcohol are not to be shared with their parents.
"There's no way in hell in high school I'd call my mom and tell her, 'Mom I can't come home because I'm drunk,'" said Kristi Thompson, Topeka junior.
The underground nature of teen drinking shapes their experiences and attitudes toward alcohol.
Thompson said that when she was in high school, opportunities to
These covert experiences force teenagers to learn about drinking from equally naive peers instead of their parents.
drink with friends were limited and had to be carefully organized to avoid getting caught.
Gullyard said that children in France were taught from an early age to drink responsibly.
"When you're a baby, your father puts wine in your glass so you can try it," he said. "It's not a big deal for us. We drink whenever we want to drink."
Ceelicia Carlander, a college student from Goteborg, Sweden, said that the drinking age in Sweden varied from 18 years old to 20 years old, depending on where the alcohol was bought. She said clubs and bars were allowed to establish their own age limits, which were often over 21.
Carlander has lived in France and said that she thought alcohol was more of an issue in Sweden where teen-agers sometimes went on vacation for the sole purpose of legally buying alcohol.
"The adolescents are more curious here because alcohol is forbidden to them," she said.
Reaching that key age is part of a university student's passage into
Peter Mancall, professor of history, related a story about a U.S. student approaching her 21st birthday, who was warned by her physician not to drink for medical reasons.
adulthood often a dangerous part.
"On her 21st birthday, following what she perceived as American culture, she went out and consumed 21 drinks. To me it was incredible stupidity, but to her this was a ritual, a 'rite of passage',' he said.
The reality is that while college students may view themselves as adults, the law states that they are children until they become 21.
Mancall, who spent last summer on a fellowship with the Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand, recognized a contradiction in the U.S. drinking laws.
"If you look at American society, we're saying people can drive at 15 or 16, be drafted to go to war at 18, can vote at 18," he said. "What's going on that alcohol has a different status than these things?"
Mancall said he did not advocate lowering the drinking age but recognized the confusion generated by the discrepant laws.
we as a society have a very difficult time understanding the passage from adolescence to adulthood."
Chancellor concerned with student alcohol use
This is a question and answer session with Chancellor Robert Hemenway concerning alcohol use and abuse.
Q: What are the main problems that you see with students who use alcohol?
If we don't want anybody to be physically harmed or mentally harmed...There's a lot of evidence that people's academic career has been jeopardized by the use of alcohol... We know that most of the issues of violence and date rape increase with the use of alcohol.
Q: What concerns you the most about underage drinking?
A: I am concerned with underage drinkers because that's where a lot of binge drinking occurs. By definition of an underage drinker, they have relatively little experience.
Q: And legal student drinkers?
Q: And legal student or drunkers:
A: If you are 21 and are drinking as an adult, I am concerned a little bit about how they serve as a model for others... I am concerned about them making intelligent decisions. It doesn't matter if you are 19, 21 or 56 — you have got to
make intelligent decisions.
Q: What are your future goals with alcohol policies at the University?
A: I would like to get to a situation where anybody who was using alcohol and was a student at KU was making educated and responsible decisions with that use or non-use. You can say that's an ideal, but you are never going to reach everybody. My answer is if you don't try to reach everybody, you will never reach anybody.
Q: Are any repercussions planned in the future for students who get in trouble with the law because of alcohol use?
A: My hope is that we will get some recommendations from the alcohol task force... I do know that there are institutions like the University of Delaware where you have two or three alcohol-related events and you can be suspended from the university. I don't know whether it's the best model or not, but I presume the task force will look at that and also other alternatives.
By Jason Pearce
CORRECTION
University hopes to deter college binge drinking
Kristi Elliott / KANSAN
By Angela Johnson Konson staff writer
Administrators from the University of Kansas are trying to determine why KU students binge drink and what they can do to stop it.
Barbara Ballard, assistant vice chancellor, said that it was the University's responsibility to educate students about alcohol awareness.
"When students are caught on campus with alcohol, there are consequences," Ballard said. "When they go out, we can't follow them around, but we have got to try to educate them."
sgt. Troy Maileen of the KU Public Safety Office said the police had no involvement with alcohol-related arrests off-campus unless it was brought back to University property.
Ballard, who also is a representative to the University's alcohol task force, said the focus was the safety of the students.
"We need to take action before someone gets hurt," she said. "We don't
want to scare people, but accidents do happen. The message to students is that it's their choice to prevent it."
Ballard said the purpose of the survey
Ballard said the pu filled out by students this past week was to determine drinking behaviors of students.
"We want to find out if they're going to parties because of no other activities on campus," Ballard said. "Or, if the results show that it's easy to get into certain bars and drink, we need to look at that."
Ballard: Says University must educate alcohol.
Chancellor Robert Hemenway said that students saying they had nothing better to do than drink was just an excuse.
"What you see at KU mirrors what goes on elsewhere in the country."
According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Senate urged colleges to provide alcohol-free social activities, to eliminate sponsorship by beverage companies of on-campus events, and to enforce a zero-tolerance policy against underage drinking.
Congress also has been focusing on how colleges can combat underage drinking. Tuesday the Senate approved a resolution that called for colleges and universities to take specific steps to control binge drinking.
Hemenway said, "The individual needs to take the responsibility."
Ryan Anderson, Lenexa sophomore, said the University had the right to take legal action against underage drinkers.
"They have the right to govern anywhere where it's KU-owned property," Anderson said.
Margo Miller, mother of Brandon Miller, Hutchinson sophomore, said that it was the parents' duty to educate their kids to drink responsibly, not the University's.
"I do think it's a personal choice, even
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Ballard emphasized how important it was that the University task force and the city-wide task force worked together,
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Ballard said that although the University could not force students not to drink, through awareness and education, the message would get across.
"It's easier to get a ride than to call a taxi," she said. "The campus taking that responsibility is on wonderful."
"I don't know if they'll abide by the rules, but we have got to try," she said. "Because when something serious happens, you can't take it back."
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