<p>"No. Not for me. For my kid."</p>
<p>Usually our kids are able to roll with the punches life brings, it's often the parents that cringe over the blow.</p>
<p>My daughter was so opposed to substance abuse that it became a big factor when she chose her college. Her college is a small Christian one that tolerates no alcohol or drugs for anyone, any age. Of course there are kids that drink and do drugs but they are the exception and if caught they are given a couple of chances and then thrown out. Students live on campus for all four years. I know it sounds so outside the norm but she loves it. If you visited the campus you would not know it was different then any other until perhaps the night time. No dress code but morality is expected. Oh, and pre-marital sex is taboo too. The thing is that all of the kids that attend her school do so knowing the rules and choose to live that way. Yes, it will be a huge adjustment when they step out into the regular world but it might be just as big adjustment for someone who was binge drinking through College and then finds out that adults don't do that.</p>
<p>I think it's pretty cool that she's having a college experience focused on learning and socializing without the props that alcohol and drugs provide. It's a shame that on most campuses the norm is to drink. And no, this was not my first choice school but it turned out to be the right one for her.</p>
<p>Personally, I believe there is a happy medium between binge drinking and partying as the main social activity, and a taboo on alcohol. Both are extreme, and one can attend a college with an emphasis on learning without it having to prohibit many of the temptations that kids must confront in real life.</p>
<p>JMO though, and glad it is working out well for your daughter, Kathiep/</p>
<p>Think my son would have been tempted if it had been labeled "wellness" and had its own work-out facility. At his school the substance-free dorms seem to attract a mix---just like regular dorms do. Some of the kids at the sub-free dorm do get labeled, but it is due to their own behavior/demeanor. Others are in the dorm obviously because of parental pressure because away from the dorm they are heavy partiers. It does seem, he says, that the strongly religious will choose the sub-free. Sounds like most students on his campus will wait and judge the individual--not the dorm where they live.</p>
<p>At my school, there's an entire dorm that's substance free (for first-years) and a "program" within a larger form for "wellness" living. The substance free students have a horrible stigma attached to them -- maybe some of it stems from their individual actions, but who knows. At my school, it's a tradition to paint large, oversized benches outside your dorm with your affiliation, and the dorm next to the sub-free dorm simply writes "we're with sober" with an arrow pointing to the substance free dorm. Very religious right heavy in that dorm. Wellness living is more integrated, less severe rules and punishments, but it's not as much a push for an elimination of substances (though I'm sure it's part of a contract) but an overall healthy lifestyle: vending machines have healthy snacks, there's a yoga gym in the dorm, etc. However, from living in regular dorms for three years (and the past two years living on top of fraternities), I've seen that no one gives anyone a second thought, a hard time, a bad name if they choose to abstain from drinking. No one cares, and everyone has ALWAYS been very respectful of their peers/hallmates who don't drink or don't party.</p>