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<p>Easy. A power hour consists of 6 drinks within an hour, or people could speed drink like shotgun or bong. That is an interesting definition of “binge” drinking though, and makes more sense of definitions like “more than 3 drinks in one evening”, which would probably apply to every college student who drinks.</p>
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<p>My mistake, I must have misread.</p>
<p>I agree, footballmom104.</p>
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<p>Much neater, maybe, but just as illegal as underage drinking! </p>
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<p>You willing to foot the bill to double or triple the size of your student’s university police force? If you demand enforcement now, officers will be unable to tackle real problems (robberies, rape, medical emergencies) because they’ll be tied up writing drinking tickets. I’ve spoken with members of a police force in a college town which is tasked with responding to all incidents off-campus; they told me they hate getting noise complaints because it takes two or three officers off of the streets where they could be attempting to solve real crimes. Instead, three squad cars are sent to deal with a party of 400 underage kids and tell them to turn the music down, because logistically there’s not much they can do without getting another 8-12 cars involved, and that’s just for one party when there are literally dozens of other ones going on at the same time. Enforcement just isn’t practical, nor is it safe in a vast amount of cases.</p>
<p>In the 1970’s the legal age for drinking in Michigan was 18 but not for long. I was in high school and it was a big problem for the school to try to keep kids from bringing alcohol into the high school. We also had a certain area of the school where the 18 year olds were supposed to stay in for smoking. It was ridiculous! At least having the age at 21 the drinking is kept away from high school kids. The school could only leave two restrooms open in the whole school so they could keep an eye on everything.</p>
<p>Adult drinker here (I work in the wine industry). Kids 21 and 19. Both drink occasionally. My pretty naive 18 year old niece starts college this week. She called me and asked me specifically “what can I drink that is safe, what can I drink and not get drunk?”
Gave her the same advice I gave my own daughter…nothing in a red cup, no punch ever. No setting the glass down ever. No binge drinking. Get a single beer in a bottle (if possible). They are so filling it will take you a while to drink it.<br>
The girl who died was a 17 year old who had been partying very heavily for an extended period of time…at least a year. Where were the adults in her life?</p>
<p>There are many things colleges can do to discourage underage drinking (ie. training RAs how to respond & providing them with incentives for doing so, giving students info on drug & ETOH policies & real consequences for violating policies, enforcing the law @ bars & liquor stores in the surrounding community). Colleges should make alcohol less accessible to teens. The responsibility for communicating & enforcing underage drinking laws lies with parents & schools.</p>
<p>nightchef and shrinkrap both elude to the reason why we are even having this discussion, so I will pose a follow-up question:</p>
<p>Back in the day, as someone has already said, we drank to “feel good”…we didn’t drink with the goal of getting sick; in fact, as someone has said, it was really looked at as “stupid” that someone would drink that much and get sick (never mind the fact that other people had to clean up after the person)…the only person I remember that consistently got sick was the laughing stock of our group of friends and I don’t mean that in a good way…I do even recall one time where my friends took away his dorm keys so he wasn’t allowed back in to their suite…</p>
<p>here’s the question: When did this change? When did it become “okay” to get so sick that you passed out? Does anyone believe that the “culture” and “generational gap” changed with the drinking age being changed from 18 to 21?</p>
<p>on a diff note, I do like ebee’s guidelines re: no red cups etc…</p>
<p>S2 just had to deal with a suitemate who invoked “medical amnesty” within the first week. His school - and a growing number of colleges - are adopting a medical amnesty policy so that students who are in trouble do not have to choose between seeking medical attention vs. disciplinary action. I’m sure the policy may vary from school to school in terms of how many times one may invoke medical amnesty before there are disciplinary consequences. </p>
<p>S2 also had to clean up his suitemate’s mess in the shared bathroom. There is nothing like having to clean up someone else’s puke - that’s a life lesson which sticks with you! </p>
<p>Instead of burying their heads in the ground, I believe that colleges & universities should develop a public relations campaign along the lines of “Moderation is COOL.” The moderation campaign would show an attractive hipster standing next to a passed-out sloppy drunk with cups or cans strewn around him/her. It would say “Moderation is COOL. Any questions?” Underage drinking at college is a reality which cannot be ignored. Promoting moderation is the message that colleges should be sending to the students.</p>
<p>On a side note: my family lived in a furnished temporary apartment for several months. There were some recent college grads in a corporate management program who lived directly above us. They would begin partying at 1 or 2 am, making a lot of noise, shouting obscenities from the balcony, and puking in the hallway or stairwell. This went on for about two weeks. After repeated complaints to security and the management, we eventually got them kicked out of the apartment complex. No one should have to live in those conditions.</p>
<p>Perhaps it’s the american culture of excess (mcmansions, suvs, all-you-eat buffets, …)?
However, the area of the brain that inhibits risky behavior is not fully developed until age 25. Therefore, allowing kids to “practice” binge drinking &/or drug use before that age is counterintuitive.</p>
<p>You are never going to keep a campus completely dry, but there are some things you can do. I was an RA when the drinking age was raised from 18 to 21. First of all, we did it gradually, 19, then 20 then 21. The first big step was strict enforcement of no kegs on campus (this is funny to think back on, but there were actually protests) bracelets were issued and we came down pretty hard on the legal drinkers who provided alcohol to underage drinkers or who even allowed under age students to be with them when they drank. More often than not, when we caught an underage student drinking we had him or her pour it out and we looked the in the eye and made a mental note. Repeat offenders got written up. If you got written up too many times it was out of the RA’s hands and into the Office of Residents Halls. This reduced the really stupid behavior by about 90% over two years.</p>
<p>The GPA of the campus went up .7. Vandalism dropped by a huge margin.</p>
<p>We were never zero tolerance because we did not want to drive the students off campus - that became a drinking and driving issue and a law enforcement issue. It was always clear that you were better off being caught by and RA than by a cop.</p>
<p>Since a person in the US is legally considered an adult at age 18, I believe that the drinking age should be 18. Besides 18-20 year olds, what other group of adults is held accountable for their actions yet denied some of the rights of other adults? (Besides convicted felons).</p>
<p>It is kind of absurd that a person is considered old enough to drive, vote, sign contracts, and die for their country, but not old enough to have a beer.</p>
<p>Back to my advertising campaign: remember those ads with the egg & the frying pan “This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs. Any questions?” The moderation campaign would have side-by-side pictures of a flat six-pack abdomen, the other would be a beer gut hanging over a belt. The slogan would say, “This is your stomach. This is your stomach with a lot of beer. Any questions?” We need to appeal to the humor of an 18-24 yr old while emphasizing that excess is not cute.</p>
<p>“like” button selected.</p>
<p>Nightchef - it’s more absurd to ignore the fact that underage drinking is one of the leading public health problems in the country.</p>
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At my university, itemized lists of damages like that are made, but they’re only distributed to the student government councils of each dorm (it has to do with an incentive program that awards dorm residents for either not having damages or paying for cleanup costs). Most of the time, people don’t know who did the damage, so the floor of the dorm is penalized as a whole, though they aren’t obligated to pay for anything - their ‘penalty’ is being removed from the incentive program.</p>
<p>I guess they don’t post the damage reports on any university websites for obvious reasons.</p>
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Not in my experience. All they have to do to get beer is stand outside a drug or package store and find some old drunk or a recent 21-year-old who doesn’t care to go in and buy them a 12-pack, then give him a couple of cans for his trouble. It isn’t that hard. I know it comes as a shock to some of us parents, but there are adults out there who really don’t care whether their actions harm our children or not.</p>
<p>Since many 18 year olds are still in high school, I think the drinking age should be 19.</p>
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<p>This is the phrase the bars in town (college town) used in the early 80s for those afternoons/evenings early hours when the bar would tap a keg and ladies drank free—Only ladies were admitted.
The guys were not admitted until MUCH later…say 9 or 10pm…
Meanwhile the college ladies had been at “happy hour” and beyond for hours–</p>
<p>Sometimes the local college bar specials would be “dime drafts” or quarter long necks…</p>
<p>One local radio station did Rock 101 $1.01 Wild Turkey for the days before Thanksgiving…
ok
so I am showing my age here…</p>
<p>++ As far as partying goes–
we did more than our fair share in college and grad school etc…</p>
<p>At this point we know our student hasn’t had anything to drink/hasn’t attended parties with drinking etc
however we also know kiddo will be faced with dilemas and decisions…
now drinking is an age 21 thing–back in the day it was 18.</p>