Students' opinions of alcohol use on campus

By Betsy Baertlein
Features Editor

Last spring’s drug and alcohol survey showed that 60.9 percent of males and 35.9 percent of females at Saint Mary’s University reported high-risk drinking (5 or more drinks at any one time) in the past two weeks.

At first glance, these statistics seem quite disconcerting. Why would such a higher percentage of males engage in high-risk drinking than females?
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However, a similar pattern is seen at other four-year private colleges and universities, with 48.8 percent of males and 34.5 percent of females reporting high-risk drinking in the previous two weeks. According to these statistics, males at SMU report 12.1 percent more high-risk drinking than males at other similar schools.

When asked whether these statistics really reflect what is really happening on campus, student Sara Eisenhauer said, “I don’t think these statistics are even close to what the reality is on campus. I think a lot of people who go out have a lot more than five drinks and probably do it very consistently.”

On the contrary, student Vanessa Grams said, “I think that the results were fairly accurate sounding, except I was a little surprised that so many females had consumed five of more drinks at one time in the past two weeks.”

According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, women achieve higher concentrations of alcohol in the blood and become more impaired than men after drinking equivalent amounts of alcohol. In addition, student Ryan Soukup points out that “society reflects that it is more appropriate for males to drink more than females.”

But why is the percentage of high-risk male drinkers at SMU so much higher than at similar schools? Sara Eisenhauer points to “the high popularity of the men’s hockey team and men’s rugby team, both of which are known to be involved with heavy drinking.” Eisenhauer believes that students are driven to drink heavily in their attempt to fit in with these groups.

Soukup proposes the size of SMU, saying, “With fewer students and smaller class sizes, younger people have more contacts with older students. Students are more likely to know someone else who can buy alcohol for them.”

Yet another student, Sarah Weir, said, “Bluffs and campus rooms lend themselves well to providing spaces for underage persons to drink.” All of these factors combined may provide some explanation as to why males at SMU engage in so much high-risk drinking.

Some students interviewed said that SMU should not be as concerned about the gender difference in high-risk drinking as in the drinking levels overall. “The real concern should be focused on the fact that high-risk drinking is so prominent here at SMU over social drinking. High-risk drinking puts everyone who is participating at risk,” said student Emily Toenjes.

SMU has taken action to reduce high-risk drinking, especially by modifying the alcohol policy. “SMU follows closely national efforts to strengthen alcohol policies and programs – like every other school. We have everything here that the [others] have in place. At the same time, when I go to conferences, we as professionals in this field admit that we all go home at the end of the day, and pray that the phone doesn’t ring at 2 a.m.,” said Vice President for Student Development Chris Kendall.

Kendall observed that “you can point to good and bad peer influences, good and bad policies and programs regarding high-risk alcohol use, but ultimately college is about young people learning to take responsibility for their own lives through decisions that they make.”