College presidents must take action to change the culture of drinking on campus, said Presidents Institute panelist Susan Resneck Pierce, president of University of Puget Sound (WA), during a session on the president’s role in addressing campus drinking.
    More college students are drinking to get drunk and engaging in risky behavior (for example, driving under the influence and having unprotected sex), she said, noting that “1,400 college students die each year because of alcohol, 500,000 are injured, 600,000 are assaulted, and 70,000 are victims of date rape or sexual assault.” Pierce cited a recent report from the National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse Task Force (NIAAA), A Call to Action: Changing the Culture of Drinking at U.S. Colleges. Pierce served on the NIAAA’s Task Force on College Drinking.
    Given the magnitude of the problem, she said it is important for college presidents to tackle the issue. She suggested a number of actions presidents could take that might have a positive impact on campus drinking:

• Work with students on an individual level;
• Make substance abuse prevention a priority;
• Educate faculty members about how alcohol abuse leads to academic problems (25 percent of students report having academic problems related to alcohol abuse) and persuade faculty members to join in efforts to address the problem;
• Step up the enforcement of the minimum drinking age law;
• Work with off-campus bars and nightclubs on responsible serving;
• Educate students about alcohol poisoning;
• Create alcohol-free living spaces and host alcohol-free events;
• Eliminate keg parties on campus, and eliminate alcohol at sporting events, including banning tail-gate parties; and
• Conduct a social norms campaign to educate students that there is actually less drinking than they think there is; students tend to want to conform, and if they think more students are drinking, they might feel more pressure to do so themselves.

    Following her stint on the Alcohol Abuse Task Force, Pierce undertook a major alcohol awareness campaign at the University of Puget Sound. She said the institution now “rents security personnel/police on the weekends to patrol the off-campus neighborhoods, which has significantly improved the campus’ relations with the neighbors; notifies parents of students with major or chronic offenses (which has led to very few repeat offenders); has adults living in all of the residence halls; sponsors a lot of midnight breakfasts with live music; schedules a variety of orientation activities on alcohol abuse and alcohol policies on campus; and disallows alcohol-related advertising on campus.
    She encouraged presidents to obtain the college materials kit from the NIAAA, which contains a copy of every publication released by the Task Force on College Drinking. The kit can be ordered online at www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov.

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Last updated: March 2003
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