The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism released a report about the alcohol culture at U.S. colleges last week. The statistics show that 1,400 college students die each year from alcohol-related injuries and that 70,000 students are victims of alcohol-related sexual assault or date-rape each year.
Georgetown’s response to the troubling statistics has been, refreshingly, focused on prevention as opposed to punishment. In an article released to the Associated Press wire, Vice President for Communications Dan Porterfield and Dean of the School of Nursing and Health Studies Bette Keltner wrote that, “If we defined the solution as campaigning against student drinking, few undergraduates would join. And if we regarded success as asking officials to sanction underage drinking, faculty and administrators would not take part.”
So instead of creating more punitive-oriented deterrents from drinking, a committee composed of students, faculty, staff and administrators are focusing on bolstering education and fostering a greater sense of campus community. Initiatives include an increased number of Resident Assistant-sponsored educational related floor events, campus speakers to deal with alcohol-related issues and community building programs such as student-faculty dinners in campus cafeterias. The committee will also meet with campus groups that serve alcohol at events to discuss ways in which alcohol can be transformed from being the center of parties to just one social aspect of their events.
Granted, no action of the administration will end the problematic drinking issues on campus, but these steps, instead of increasing hostility between administrators and students, may actually get to the root of student drinking and stop problematic behavior before it starts.
The group’s focus is laudable. Instead of setting an impossible goal such as ending underage drinking, the committee is hoping primarily reduce alcohol-related harm, including emergency room visits and vandalism. With these specific programs and goals, the committee may actually succeed in reducing the alcohol related problems on campus.
