<p>On February 22, 2006, Dr. Charles Steger, President of Virginia Tech, commissioned a campuswide Alcohol Abuse Prevention Taskforce. This was prompted in good part by statistics that pointed to the increased misuse and abuse of alcohol among students at the University. The number of students consuming alcohol—and the number of
alcohol related violations—had steadily increased during the previous four years. In 2005, 79.8% of students at Virginia Tech consumed alcohol, with 58.4% of students having engaged in recent binge drinking. (In keeping with the standard, national definition, binge drinking is defined as the consumption of five or more drinks in one sitting.) In
addition, alcohol use was measured at high levels for both underage and ofage
students, with some student organizations facing heightened challenges in this area. For example, 75% of students in Greekletter organizations
participated in bingedrinking activity. Finally, in relation to national averages, Virginia Tech students consumed more alcohol, and engaged more widely in binge drinking
practices, than peers at other schools.</p>
<p>Chuy- These figures were provided by the Virginia Tech Alcohol abuse prevention center, if you take issue with their authenticity or validity, please take those issues with with Dr Steven Clarke, the Virginia Tech Alcohol abuse prevention center. </p>
<p>Further, Dr Clarke has begun a Blacksburg based alcohol abuse prevention coalition, and has stated at the meetings that he views the problem being primarily centered in off campus housing complexes and augmented by the downtown bar scene.</p>
<p>Couldn’t this have gone in the other thread?</p>
<p>Fair enough, you were correct that more people drink and more people binge drink at VT than other schools. Do they have the averages for other schools in the PDF? I still can’t open it from the comptuer I’m on. I’m interested in seeing how much of a difference there is between us and other large public rural schools. I’d just like to point out yet again though, that there people binge drink at smaller parties as well and many don’t binge drink at the larger ones. Also, most people who do binge drink do not drive, so while it is a health issue for them it’s irrelevant to you as long as they’re at one of the smaller parties.</p>
<p>Of course the drinking centers around off campus housing complexes and the downtown bar scene. Where else is there? They crack down pretty hard on the dorms but that is only because the majority of the people there are underage, everyone is a student under their watch, and the close proximity of the different people means any noise made carries and disturbs everyone else. You can binge drink all you want in the dorms though as long as you’re over 21 or keep the door closed and quiet.</p>
<p>The difference is that an off campus apartment is a private residence, not owned by the school. We agree that drunk driving is bad and that steps should be taken to cut down on it. We agree that police should break up parties that are out of control. I think the only real disagreement at this point is that you think that parties that are not out of control should be broken up by private security that the complexes are responsible for hiring. Would you agree with that?</p>