Impaired judgement

Part 4 - Use vs. abuse

by Jason Gay

Zero-tolerance crackdowns also dodge another important issue. The problem isn't necessarily that students drink alcohol. The problem is that some of them drink far too much.

It's an all-American dilemma. Heath, the Brown anthropologist, says that our citizens' penchant for fast, furious drinking is singular. In the Mediterranean, people drink eight to nine times more per capita than Americans, but it's a better-paced, more sociable style of drinking. Conversely, we "drink to get drunk," Heath says.

Such abuse is a byproduct of inexperience, according to Heath. In European countries, with low or no minimum drinking ages, alcohol is traditionally introduced to adolescents in the home, by adult family members. "Young people become accustomed to drinking with the family," Heath says. "And they learn that being drunk is looked down upon."

But in America, with its higher drinking ages, young people learn to drink from their adolescent peers, who usually have little or no idea of the potential hazards. They grow up drinking unsupervised at house parties, in city parks, and -- far worse -- in automobiles. Instead of viewing alcohol as a complement to meals or conversation, teenagers are taught that drinking is an illicit thrill.

"When people drink socially, for camaraderie and celebration, it's fine," Heath says. "It's this idea of drinking to demonstrate how manly or how strong we are . . . that's trouble."

Indeed, Americans are the inventors of the funnel, the keg stand, the Jell-O shot, the beer slide, and a series of drink-till-you-puke games with names like "quarters," "thumper," "chandeliers," and "asshole." We'll invent a drinking game to match almost any activity: in one, participants are assigned a character from Beverly Hills 90210 and take a drink every time that character's name is mentioned. (Brandon's a favorite.)

But, as all students know, the truly excessive behavior -- the kind that shocks even them -- is not the kind of wide-ranging epidemic that the media have made it out to be. Very often, hard-partying college subcultures, such as fraternities and sororities, play a central role in encouraging it. Harvard's 1994 study found that the single strongest predictor of binge drinking was fraternity or sorority membership.

Wechsler, the Harvard binge drinking expert, surveyed 17,600 students at 140 American colleges. He found that 75 percent of fraternity members were binge drinkers, compared to 45 percent of other male students. Likewise, sorority members were almost twice as likely to be binge drinkers as other female students -- 62 percent compared to 35 percent.

Usually, Greek-system members are ready to drink when they arrive on campus, says Wechsler. "People who join fraternities have more extensive drinking experience than other students," he says.

These findings undermine the Greek system's standard refrain that drinking habits in fraternities and sororities are no better or worse than other students'. (There is a "witchhunt for fraternities," Alpha Kappa Sigma president David Lemasa complained to the Northeastern News after Krueger's death.)

Wisely, some fraternities and sororities are dropping this defensive attitude and acknowledging that alcohol represents a serious threat to their survival. Some are mandating dry rushes, sparing pledge classes from a grueling, alcohol-based initiation. Others have taken it even further. Two national fraternities, Sigma Nu and Phi Delta Theta, ordered all their houses to become alcohol-free by the year 2000. Following Krueger's death, the national branch of Phi Gamma Delta added its houses to that list.

To be sure, fraternities and sororities aren't the only problem. In a place like Boston, where the Greek system's presence is relatively small, binge drinking appears in other environments. The week of the Miami football game, the BC student newspaper, the Heights, published a column criticizing mod residents for not partying enough. The modsters viewed this as an insult -- a sign posted around campus asked IS THIS HOW WE WANT TO BE REMEMBERED?! -- and spent much of the morning trying to prove the columnist wrong.

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Jason Gay can be reached at jgay[a]phx.com.