Colleges Try Different Approaches To Solving Campus Drinking Problem

Chicago, IL (AHN) - After the proposal by over 100 college presidents to lower the legal drinking age to 18 from 21 encountered criticism and opposition, universities across the U.S. are now trying different approaches to solve the growing menace of campus binge drinking.

A number of schools have mandated online tutorial sessions on the dangers of drinking and have offered intervention programs. Others tried to change the students' perceptions on the level of drinking around them, while a few have tried to alert the parents of students with drinking problems.

The alternative methods are being tried because the old way of discouraging binge drinking by exhibiting pictures of crash vehicles or recounting stories of student fatalities due to drinking failed to stop the students from taking to the bottle, said Susan Kushman, coordinator of the alcohol-prevention program at the Loyola University in Chicago.

At Lake Forest College, aside from lectures and courses on the perils of drinking, college president Stephen Schutt suggested having a campus event where alcohol could be served in moderation with faculty, staff and students participating over a few bottles of beer, instead of the kegger.

Schutt, who was one of the college presidents who pushed for the lowering of the drinking age, told the Chicago Tribune the goal is to discover a new way to encourage responsible drinking.

Meanwhile, the latest Department of Transportation data showed that while drunken-driving fatalities went down in 32 states last year, deaths involving drunk motorcyclists went up 7.5 percent for the same period or a total of 1,621 riders.

Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said that in 2007 almost 13,000 people with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 died from vehicular crashes, down from 13,500 fatalities in 2006.

The Department of Transportation maintains age-21 drinking laws lower deaths.