<p>I have a soon to be 21 yr old, transferred to a state university this year as a sophomore. She lives in the dorm, amongst mostly 18/19 year olds. As a mom, I am not blind. Kids drink, I know that. Each person needs to take responsibility of their own actions. I am wondering though, just why isn't something being done about all the on campus in the dorm drinking? They obviously know it is going on, the RA's see it, see the kids coming in after the bars are closed and parties are over, see the kids staggering in. Why isn't something done about it. I am just so frustrated with the whole situation. My daughter informed me that she stayed up on Monday night till 5am to help a kid who was totally wasted. He would not stay in his dorm room, he was so drunk he didn't know what he was doing so they stayed up to make sure he didn't do anything too stupid. And the RA didn't see him as he walked into the facility? My daughter did not go to BG to be a "babysitter" for irresponsible people. I am not stupid, she is not innocent of the drinking scene either. I have always heard the rumors of the issues of college drinking, I know it exist, what I want to know is why isn't something being done about it? Not only the alcohol, but the pot too. You can smell it in the hallways of the dorm. </p>
<p>I think it is wrong to force the young adults to live in a dorm, especially if the colleges are not going to do their part in making them drug and alcohol free.</p>
<p>Many colleges ARE doing their part in making them drug and alcohol free. U Iowa has a zero tolerance policy and routinely kicks out dorm residents for possession/consumption of drugs and possession of a large amount of alcohol. </p>
<p>All students and guests, regardless of age, are not permitted to consume or possess any amount of alcoholic beverages in residence halls. Fines ranging from $200 - $700 are imposed on a regular basis.</p>
<p>RA’s are trained and expected to enforce rules. I am sure that some RA’s overlook issues but for the most part I think they do a pretty consistent job at Iowa. </p>
<p>I guess in one sense, it’s not the job of colleges to police adults who are breaking the law. Some colleges certainly do, though, it seems to depend…a friend’s daughter went to a school that was one strike, you’re out - one incident of underage drinking and the student is gone (not from the form - from the school). </p>
<p>Some call the police and let them arrest the student.</p>
<p>I read a cynical but interesting Book called Beer and Circuses. His main gist is many large research schools use alcohol and sports to keep the kids happy so they don’t notice they are being ripped off of a real undergraduate education. Alcohol blindness is a strategy.</p>
<p>Possession of alcohol in a container is illegal if you are under 21.</p>
<p>I’m not sure whether possession of it inside your body is also illegal. </p>
<p>In many instances in which students in a residence hall are intoxicated, the alcohol or other intoxicant was consumed elsewhere. I’m not sure an RA can do anything about that.</p>
<p>Yes, I am assuming that much of the drinking is done off campus, although I am aware some of it is happening on campus because once they turn 21 they can legally have it in dorm.</p>
<p>Thanks bean. We were just there for a music audition last week. </p>
<p>When I was in college the drinking age was still 18 so most students were legal. And it wasn’t a big deal, mostly went on in bars. I sometimes wonder about the 21 thing, if it makes things worse.</p>
<p>“Colleges” do quite a bit to control the drinking. At my d’s school, the freshman dorms are dry, no alcohol allowed at all. But, kids go off campus to party. And come back drunk. What’s an RA to do? Deny the kid entrance to his home until he sobers up? Fine him for being drunk? Carry a breathalizer to prove it so the fine sticks? Rules are made. Extensive educational programming is implemented, but at the end of the day, there’s still a whole lot of drinking going on.</p>
<p>Haystack, I know a young man at the U of I who caught himself a $300 first offense alcohol fine because we was with someone who was bringing beer into the dorm. Security has the right to search any package going in, and these boys got busted. Quite a lesson, but I’m not sure in what. The young man in question moved off campus for sophomore year (which, I know, is quite common as dorm space is really limited and lots of kids live in private housing after first year).</p>
<p>The Alcohols, taste better than they did when I was in school.
The lite beers are flavorless but premium advertised.
The flavored vodkas are not bad.
The whiskeys not as sharp.
Helps to have a lot of Mexican Restaurants in USA to promote Tequila and dos Equos
And the cartoon character’s are sharp and fun. The women are pretty, buxom and are in a party mood.</p>
<p>And finally, Parents are paying for school or kids are having fun on the student loans, Now rather than later.</p>
<p>A lot of kids really don’t care, and a lot of their parents care even less. My son is an RA, and unless he sees someone literally drinking alcohol or consuming alcohol in the dorm, there is nothing he can do. Kids don’t care about rules these days… LOL</p>
<p>My daughter is IMing me right now that she is hanging in her room because her suitemates are drinking wine right now. She hates being around them when they are drunk.</p>
<p>A lot of kids have grown up in an ‘alcohol is the devil’ environment and as a result go wild when they’re outside parental supervision… Maybe if they took the attitude we had in Europe…</p>
<p>When I was at Cajun State the legal drinking age for Louisiana was 18… And you could buy beer at the Student Center :-). It was not as much a problem as people thought it would be. Eventually Louisiana gave in (last state if I remember ok to raise drinking age)… We had pretty epic in-class parties for which the particular professor was famous for…</p>
<p>When you’re the only country in western civilization with a 21 year drinking age, what do you expect? Especially in the internet age - such information is readily available. You would have thought the lessons of prohibition would have been learned - people want what some “puritan” says they can’t or shouldn’t have.</p>
<p>Most colleges have strong rules against alcohol use by minors. As HurricaneMom said, if an RA doesn’t actually see something, they cannot do anything about it. It is up to the student who does not like seeing it or being around it to report it. Yes, that’s not fun but who ever said life was fun? It’s an important lesson/experience for your child. If students continue to allow it, it’s not going to stop. Tell her to get out of the room (so she’s not implicated) and IM her RA or talk directly to her RA. I agree with Turbo93 and ChicagoBear. We allow our children, in some states, to drive at 14 or 15, fight in wars at 18 but they cannot drink legally until 21? It just doesn’t make sense.</p>
<p>Drinking does go on at every institution, but heavy habitual partying is more prevalent at some campuses than at others. This is something a student has some control over when choosing a college: the drinking culture there.</p>
<p>The 21 drinking age is good for keeping younger intoxicated drivers off the road but it’s bad for college students, who end up doing more secret binge drinking in dorms. When i was in college, we went to bars and clubs at 18 and 19. We drank in public and had to function socially in a public setting. Getting blind drunk was stupid and embarrassing. So many kids seem to have lost the ability to engage in moderate public drinking; they are either teetotalers or 3/4 of the way to a full-blown substance abuse problem. Every Thursday night at the campus where I work, an ambulance is called to the dorms to deal with alcohol poisoning.</p>
<p>Having a lower drinking age isn’t the answer. European countries with drinking ages from 16 to 18 are having terrible problems with teen alcohol use. Recently, public health groups, law enforcement, and scientists in Europe have been raising alarms about the teenage drinking culture there and the effects their alcohol use is having on society. My European friends (all of whom drink) complain of adults and teenagers wandering around drunk as early as mid-morning, and they say that there is even talk about raising drinking ages.</p>
<p>As someone who grew up in a family where no one drank and in a rural Southern culture where drinking was rare, I had never seen anyone drink before I went off to college at a large, public university. The drinking age was 18, and drinking on campus was common. However, I didn’t start to drink – and still don’t. My observation in college was that the students who were the least likely to drink were the students who had grown up in families where the parents did NOT drink. Certainly, there will be some students who will go off to college and do everything their parents taught them not to do. However, the students my daughter sees who are the drinkers are the ones who were already drinking in high school.</p>