Honestly, I do not know about the campus pub thing as I can see the money on the student account going to that instead of the food court.) Wonder how many college kids might spend all their food money at the pub [-X and have to call home because they are broke.
Many kids go off to college with no experience with alcohol whatsoever. They have no idea of it’s power and no idea of their own limits. And many of them drink on empty stomachs. Parents have different philosophies on this, but my approach is to allow my children to enjoy a beer or a glass of wine with us once they have turned 16. My S declines because he simply does not like the taste of any alcoholic beverage, but I believe this practice helped my D immensely last Fall when she started college.
I like the idea of the drinking age being lowered to 18 for wine and beer. A campus pub that also serves pizza/burgers makes some sense to me. It would be an alternative to these alcohol infused parties and there would be someone behind a bar to cut people off who showed signs of intoxication. It would also be a place where those who do not drink could socialize as well. There are plenty of college students who do not drink at all - from what I see I expect my own S to be one of them. He would take a milkshake over a beer any day!
In a previous thread about this subject someone posted that every kid on campus knows about the “rapey” fraternity, the sorority filled with illegal drug use or other organizations that openly disregard laws and safety. Instead of investigating, some campus administrations choose to turn a blind eye and hope that nothing tragic happens on their watch.
This story is about ten years old, but it seemingly still applies.
https://www.mcgill.ca/reporter/38/01/drinking/
Canada’s lower drinking age (18 in some provinces, 19 in others) and more relaxed attitude about alcohol appears to help curb dangerous binge drinking among college students.
Well whatever we are doing here in the U.S. clearly is not working, so alternative ways of doing things should be something everyone is open to. Otherwise it will just continue to be “business as usual.”
“Well whatever we are doing here in the U.S. clearly is not working”
In my opinion what we are doing is making every mistake, misstep, questionable decision, experimentation, slight flaunting of the rules, or barely breaking the law fraught with overblown, legal, lifechanging consequences.
I’m old enough to have gone to college when 18 was legal. I don’t recall the atmosphere of housing, campus security or local police as being a culture of “gottcha” oversight of students. It seems as though there was more room for mistakes, for learning from stupid mistakes, as opposed to today’s “here’s a citation and now you are on double secret probation. Oh, and good luck with that background check when you apply for a job.”
All the punitive rules and legal issues that go along with most students being legally underage result in what has been mentioned above: it encourages kids to use harder liquor, to pre-game, and to drink “underground” instead of socially.
The alcohol laws are such a weird glitch in our treatment of 18-20 year olds. They are adults in terms of legal consequences, but kids in terms of restrictions. Their brains are not mature, they make bad, stupid, sometimes terrible decisions in ALL areas of their lives.
Either treat them as adults, and let them drink, or treat them as still growing youth, and make the legsl consequences reflective of that.
This is not new. Wine coolers, handles of Jack, shots like Sex on the Beach or Fuzzy Navels, flavored vodka…all existed when I was a teenager…people have been trying to make alcohol taste better (sweeter, usually) forever.
Yeah. And I remember being a teen (not of drinking age), going to places like TGIF and getting alcohol mixed in with milkshake-like drinks. My parents routinely served run slushies by the pool which tasted like a frozen treat. I am surprised anyone thinks this is new.
I also remember lower drinking ages. High school kids were hanging out in bars. I knew 14 year olds who did this. Some who ended up in the ER. No, I don’t think kicking this problem into high school is the solution.
When I was in college, the drinking age was 21 in my state, and 19 in the state just over the border from where I was going to school. So kids would go to clubs in the other state, as it was an eight mile drive, then drive home drunk. Or they’d bring alcohol back. I remember a drunk student who fell out the window to her death. Drunk college kids existed before the legal age was 21 and now. I don’t see that the legal age makes a difference. I don’t think lowering again would help.
The preponderance of flavored alcohol has exploded. Of course, there has always been flavored liquor but nothing like there is today. Again walk into a liquor store. Marketing to kids. Plain and simple.
And who likes flavored booze the most… Young women.
Ask your kids about shots of Fireball.
How about waffle flavored vodka topped with alcohol infused whipped cream. Buttered popcorn flavored booze.
Marketing to kds. Joe Camel could be so lucky. Absolutely adding to the problem of kids abusing hard liquor
Just for your information, drinking on top of being fun for parties is also popularized by the hookup culture. It is much less awkward to try and convince someone to hook up with you drunk than sober. That and the hooking up part.
Also colleges trying to ban parties in the dorms really makes no sense to me. The kids are going to drink even if you institute a “dry campus.” They’re just going to secretly pre game in their rooms and go to the bars instead. I’m pretty sure it’s in their best interest to have the kids drink on campus rather in some sketchy bars downtown but what do I know
I remember “jello shots” growing up. Never liked them and after one try didn’t do them. But then I dislike all sweet alcoholic beverages. Fortunately so does my D.
I’m old and I like sweet drinks. Always have. The good part, I suppose, is that I let my teens have sips and explain that these kinds of drinks are dangerous because it’s easy to drink them quickly and to drink many of them. They see me only having one with dinner once in a blue moon, but I do try to use my juvenile taste in alcohol as a teaching moment so that they know how easy it is to get drunk (or even worse, sick/dead) on these kinds of beverages.
An acquaintance whose daughter is a junior at BC says that the campus police roam the campus every time there is a home game looking for students who need transporting to the ER. When her daughter was among those transported, her husband said that the ER was full of BC students. The guard who helped them out to their car after the girl was treated said that the ER was like this every single weekend. @NerdyChica is right.
NerdyChica jumped a little too fast on her boosterism of Duke – as no one on this thread had even remotely suggested that the problem was isolated to Duke. It happens everywhere; this one just happened to make the news.
There is NO SUCH THING as hook-up culture unless you’re calling pretty much the last 50 years or so a period of “hookup culture”
Rates of partners and sexual activity has remained virtually unchanged for decades.
I’m another who doesn’t like sweet alcohol. My mom introduced me to beer at a pretty young age and I’ve liked them ever since. But because I started with beer (and only had beer for probably 7 years), harder alcohol, especially when fruit flavored, has always been pretty gross to me.
We didn’t call it hookups but certainly it happened “in my day.” Sometimes with regrets afterwards, and splitting headaches too.
I remember traveling on island vacations with my girlfriends when I was single. They would order those daiquiris and pina coladas at the beach/pool which are just loaded with sugar. They would wake up the next day with the worst hangovers. I stuck to wine and beer and was fine.
When I was a freshman the fraternity would buy 10 to 15 kegs of beer for a football weekend party. The party was open to all. The beer was served in 12 oz. cups, and you invariably had to stand in line five to 15 minutes to get a cup. I’m not saying you couldn’t get drunk, but in fact the wait and serving size did act as a limiting factor as to how much one could drink.
After alcohol was “outlawed” for those under 21 the fraternity quit serving. So everyone would get fifths of whiskey that they would keep in their rooms, and they might carry a flask in their hip pocket. To mix a drink you would fill a cup with ice and then pour in some whiskey, then add some Coke. But since everything was done by sight, it was really easy to mix a drink that was 80 percent whiskey. That’s how people get really drunk.
College students are far better off if they are allowed to be served openly. It’s safer and more responsible.