<p>I'm a boomer (born in 1950). Emory (1968-70) was booze and very light drugs.</p>
<p>UT Austin (1970-72) was DRUGS and BOOZE [as far as I can recall, its a little (purple)hazy].</p>
<p>I have yet to see any post that has described anything that didn't happen when I was in college.</p>
<p>
[quote]
How? The only thing that occurs to me is that you could probably take money from their wallets.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I used to see if I could confuse the drunks. It sometimes yielded funny results.</p>
<p>Both son and daughter chose Furman and are completing their first semester as freshman. They both understood Furman was a "damp" campus, but quickly learned in first 3 weeks there was a lot more drinking than they anticipated. Our kids were not sheltered in HS-unfortunately they saw several peers become alcoholics during high school-so they wanted an environment not dominated by alcohol. Unfortunately, son has been asked to "help" other hall mates of several students who had been binge drinking. At one point, our son was ready to come home, because he had "had it" with coaxing people back from balconies and actually calling police and rescue when one student was unconscious. So answer to OP: Yes-I am fed up. Both S and D chose not to attend several great schools because of Wed-Sun. drinking culture.</p>
<p>I believe it is hard for kids, regardless of school ( unless BYU/service academies?) to find a school where most of social life is not tied to alcohol. I think our kids are trying to find a comfort level with being at parties while not being the drinkers-but it is hard. For DH and I, one of the biggest issues is concern that school administration is not doing enough to intervene/educate about binge drinking.</p>
<p>This drinking habit developed while at college continues into their professional lives. Just look at the people who are at bars and restaurants with active bar scenes, they all seem to be under 35.</p>
<p>cbreeze,</p>
<p>Hasn't that been the case since... forever?</p>
<p>One change that I see from my college days is the frequency of the drinking. I had early classes most days and Friday classes almost every semester. Kids now rarely have Friday classes. I think this opens up a lot more partying opportunities. Back in "my day" we generally partied Fri and Sat nights (if even that) and an occasional weeknight if it was someon'es birthday or something.</p>
<p>Emory in the 1960s did not have class on Wednesdays. It was called (by the school) "Wonderful Wednesdays." </p>
<p>The thought was the since Emory was on trimesters (3 sets of courses during the 9 month regular year), the extra day off "to study" would allow the students to keep up with the rapid pace of the classes. </p>
<p>Tuesday nights were just another Friday night for many.</p>
<p>My problem is not so much the drinking and 'letting loose' that kids do in college, but that they are paying $40K/yr for that. I mean, do you know how many kegs of beer that kind of money could buy? Seems like a total waste of money to pay tuition when you are mostly partying.</p>
<p>If I could design it, college would last for 5 years, the first year consisting of no classes- just parties and socializing. Students would not pay tuition, just room and board and a deposit for all the property damage they will do while drunk. It could be called the "Rumspringa" year, borrowing a term the Amish use for something similar. At the end of that year, kids could choose to either stay on and get serious or drop out.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Hasn't that been the case since... forever?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>You must be much younger than I.</p>
<p>My son attends the University of Delaware (where a freshman recently died from too much drinking). He has never been interested in drinking, and does not go to parties. He spends most of his time studying and working, but enjoys the little bit of free time he does have with friends who also have no interest in the party/drinking culture. They find each other, and are enjoying their college experience. I think a student can do this at any college, but it is probably easier to do at a non-party school. UD was on the top 20 list of party schools in the past, but they aren't anymore, probably due to the efforts of the administration. That said, it is still a great temptation for many students. I am not sure what the solution is, and my heart breaks for the parents of the student who died earlier this month.</p>
<p>cbreeze,</p>
<p>My mom's roommate, who is in his 70s, fondly tells stories about his days as a bar hopper in LA and NYC. My point is that bars have always attracted people around that age group. Who were the people frequenting speakeasies? Mostly 40-and-youngers.</p>
<p>
[quote]
What do you think?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I think that USNEWS should start counting each college's binge drinking rate and number of alcohol poisoning hospitalizations in the college rankings.</p>
<p>At the very least, we would get to see how high college Presidents can jump.</p>
<p>^^^
I wouldn't want to see anything happen that could discourage kids getting taken to the hospital. And this just might do that....
Be careful what you wish for...</p>
<p>My daughter attends a school known as a party school but the first few months she did not attend a lot of parties nor did she participate in a lot of drinking. In fact, she and her friend are the only 2 that were not cited for the floor party. They had too much work to do for their classes(there was no virtue). I did find it odd that she studied at the library a lot( till the wee hour), so I suggested that she should do some partying when she is not busy with college stuff. I really did not want her to miss out of the college experience and I did not pay $50K/year so that she can spend all her time in a library. She could do that at the local college. Because of my suggestion, she decided to attend more parties but always with some of her study buddies. She also made more friends now and does she drink moderately. She's enjoying her college experience much more than 2 months ago. She is still not the type that drink until she has loose her self-control but rather she enjoys being a little bit tipsy and silly. She also makes great progress in school academically, she receives As in honors classes and she now can read 500 pages of book in 2 days comfortably. So yes you don't have to join the crowd even at a party school, if you choose not too. But I think it's a skill to learn to do everything in moderation.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I wouldn't want to see anything happen that could discourage kids getting taken to the hospital.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Oh, like you mean how his frat "brothers" called an ambulance the night Gordy Bailey died instead of putting him on a sofa and scribbling profanities all over his body?</p>
<p>The reason colleges have these issues is because everyone enables it with stuff like, "oh, all colleges are the same..." and "you can learn to enjoy college without drinking if you want to". </p>
<p>I'm tellin' ya. Make it part of the USNEWS rankings and you'll see college Presidents finding religion on the issue right and left. As it stands right now, the non-drinkers are the losers. They can't even identify colleges where drinking "like a Kennedy" isn't the norm because it's all swept under the rug.</p>
<p>For example, nobody should end up at Kenyon surprised by the drinking. It's a notorious party school where drinking has killed one student with alcohol in the last few years. Instead, we hear the euphemism "work hard/play hard" as if it's some kind of selling feature that kids are left to die drunk in snowbanks.</p>
<p>Put it in USNEWS. They'll jump thru hoops to improve their admissions rate and climb the rankings. Lets see what happens when binge drinking rates knock 'em out of the top tier.</p>
<p>The current trend toward campus binge drinking has to be reined in. You all should be aware that when University of Virginia professor James Davis came out of Pavilion 10 to confront a gang of rowdy, drunken students who were drinking and partying on the Lawn, the situation became so out of control that Prof. Davis was shot and killed by one of the students. What has become of our campuses???</p>
<p>It's going to be hard to bring the miscreant to justice, however. The shooting took place in November 1840.</p>
<br>
<blockquote> <p>This drinking habit developed while at college continues into their professional lives. Just look at the people who are at bars and restaurants with active bar scenes, they all seem to be under 35.<<</p> </blockquote>
<br>
<p>In real life, it is harder to get involved in ECs--takes time to find outlets and the right people. College is wonderful in that it provides a place where ECs flourish and different kinds of people congregate in one place. My D, who was always busy with ECs in college and had no trouble finding groups of kids who had other hobbies besides drinking and partying, is finding life after college a challenge.</p>
<p>Frustratingly if you attend the pre-game tailgating activities at any major flagship university you'll find alcohol rampant across the quads. Administration makes the kids take alcohol awareness course as they enter the university, and yet they turn a blind eye to the huge amount of on-campus drinking that's out in the open for the world to see. There are so many underage drinkers that think nothing of participating in drinking games right in front of campus security. They know they won't be busted as long as they are not too disruptive. Creating a campus that's "not drinker friendly" would bum out the alumni and older students, creating an atmosphere where kids and parents wouldn't want to come to the football games and tailgate and spend money in the athletic booster program. </p>
<p>I have a niece who just transfered from the University of Cincy because she prefered to move in back home and go to the local university. But her freshman year, too many times she'd go to the "dry" activities on campus to only find 4 or 5 people showing up. Until she got involved with campus crusade, she had a difficult time finding anyone who shared her committment to not drink. She finally found a group ... but it wasn't easy.</p>
<p>My s doesn't drink, either. By choice ... he has no desire to, can't see the reason for it unless you want to get sloshed, and he doesn't want to get sloshed. Thankfully, he's got roommates who feel the same way (so no dorm situations where someone's sneaking alcohol into the room). He's okay with the circle of friend he has... but I know he says it's difficult to avoid. </p>
<p>zebes</p>
<p>ellemenope,</p>
<p>I gave up on having a post-college social life for now, to be honest. It's hard enough moving away from your circle of friends, but working in a small office basically is a stake through the heart, socially.</p>
<p>C'est la vie for now.</p>
<p>I used to envy the kids who could drink and party. </p>
<p>I never could. </p>
<p>The rigors of Division 1 athletics in a major conference - with 25-30 hours a week of practice - caused anything more than a beer or two (and I gave that up early) to be unrealistic. Maybe it was just me - couldn't drink and compete at a national level - I knew a few that did. </p>
<p>Academics were hard too. I was a real student. In two real majors. With zip, zero money other than the athletic scholarship, which of course needed to be renewed each year at the coach and athletic department's singular discretion. Studying took all of the free time I had - which wasn't much. </p>
<p>Social life was hard, too. Lots of rich people. No money on my account. Last thing I wanted to do was drink with effete rich people. </p>
<p>I no longer envy the people I used to envy. Drinking was a great thing to avoid. </p>
<p>And I have a problem with kids that drink and do drugs today. I view most of them as spoiled, overindulged kids who have little concept of what it means to stand on their own two feet. Worse yet, they continually tend to make fun of people such as myself (back in the day) who really appreciated their education and were not inclined to drink it away as it was a great chance to move out of poverty and hardship. Most were and are not tough minded or self-reliant - a lost value these days. </p>
<p>I agree with interestedad - though. Find a way to inculcate drinking incidents or the lack thereof into the rankings, and you will see a bunch of status and money hungry college presidents begin to really address the problem.</p>