Binge Drinking on America's Campuses

Binge Drinking on America's Campuses

On any Friday or Saturday night, the average college student is usually drinking, dancing and out having fun. They typically party with friends at fraternity parties, bars, and clubs; and unfortunately most of these students are underage, consuming excessive amounts of alcohol or "Binge Drinking". Binge drinking results in several detrimental outcomes, some are even fatal. Today this type of drinking is rampant on educational campuses everywhere. Large and small, urban and rural educational institutions are not left unaffected by this growing trend to binge drink.

Binge drinking is defined as "the consumption of five or more drinks, in a row, on at least one occasion" (NCADI). Several surveys announce that about 1/3rd of high school seniors and 42 percent of college students binge drink on a regular basis(NCADI). Figures such as these are extremely upsetting because one expects institutions of higher learning to be the breeding ground for new leaders and innovative thinkers. Unfortunately, these statistics only make educational campuses appear, as if, everything is a party, much like National Lampoon's Animal House. Animal House is a 1980's movie dedicated to displaying college life and the experience in a college fraternity; it

constantly depicted students binge drinking.

Harvard University's School of Public Health conducted a College Alcohol study, surveying students at more than 119 colleges. Of those surveyed, 44 percent admitted to having engaged in binge drinking at least once in the two weeks prior to the survey (Booze News). Researchers discovered that white students, age 23 or younger, and members of a fraternity or sorority, on average are more likely to binge drink (Booze News). They also noted that students who were binge drinkers in high school, were three times more likely to binge drink in college (Booze News). "The percentage of students who are binge drinkers is nearly uniform from freshman year to senior year, and over half of the binge drinkers were frequent binge drinkers" (Booze News).

Binge drinking has been associated with several alcohol-related problems. The Harvard survey also notes that "a higher percentage of binge drinkers than non-binge drinkers reported having experienced alcohol-related problems, since the beginning of the school year" (Booze News).

Frequent binge drinkers are 22 times more likely than non-binge drinkers to have: missed class; fallen behind in school work; engaged in unplanned sexual activity; not used protection when having sex; damaged property; gotten in trouble with campus police; been hurt or injured; driven a car after drinking; and used other drugs (Booze News).

There are countless ways to binge drink. The most common way is to just drink, and drink, and drink some more until the person either regurgitates the alcohol, "passes out", or just stops drinking. Peer pressure to binge drink is extremely influential and powerful in pushing students to binge. There are many different ways to binge drink. One way is to play drinking card games. First, there is a card game called "Asshole", in which the dealer deals the deck of cards out to any number of people. The object of this game is to get rid of all your cards first in order from 2 to Ace. The first person to be rid of all his/her cards is "president" in the next game; the last person to get rid of his/her cards is the "Asshole". In the second game, the "president" can make anyone in the game drink, as many times as he/she wants. Also, anyone in the game who is not the "Asshole" may tell the "Asshole" to drink at anytime. There are numerous other card games utilized to binge drink. This list includes games such as: 31, Kings, F*** You Pyramid, and High-Low.

Another way to binge drinking is the game called "Beer Pong". It is played on a Ping-Pong table, with 6 medium sized cups at each end filled about 1/3rd with beer and set up like bowling pins. There are two teams of two people each. The object is to get the Ping-Pong ball into the cups at each other's end of the table, by either throwing or bouncing them into the cups. If a ball lands in a cup, the team whose cup has the ball must drink the beer in the cup. The team who gets their opponents to finish all the cups of beer in front of them first wins, and plays until they lose to other opponents. The losers must drink all of their cups and in addition must drink all the cups left over from the winning team.

There is also the ever-popular "Keg Stand". The "Keg Stand" is extremely popular at parties and happens just about every time

there is a keg at a party. The "Keg Stand" occurs when a person is picked up by his/her legs and has them put above his/her head, so that they are in a handstand position above the keg. The hose of the keg is then placed in his/her mouth, then he/she must drink for as long as he/she can, while the crowd around the keg counts off how long he/she drinks.

There is also the "Shotgun" and/or "BeerBong". These are both ways of drinking beer in a very fast manner. The "Shotgun" happens when a beer is turned on its side; a hole is then poked near the bottom of the can and opened to a little bit bigger than the size of a nickel. The drinker then puts his/her mouth on the hole and sucks till it is very tight. Finally, the beer is turned right side up, the top is opened, and the beer is shot down the drinker's mouth and throat hence the name "Shotgun". The "BeerBong" is another party favorite and is similar to the "shotgun". Instead of a can being used, a funnel and hose are used. The hose is bent upwards so that the end of the hose used to drink out of is higher than the funnel; beer is then poured into the funnel. Finally, the drinker puts his/her mouth around the end of the hose, and lifts the funnel above his/her head and drinks the beer as fast as he/she can. The "BeerBong" is a party favorite across the nation, or in my experience at least across University and College campuses in Virginia.

Another game is the competitive "Case Race". A "Case Race" can range from 2 to any number of participants. The rules are very simple; each participant has his/her own case of beer. Everyone starts at the same time and the first person or group to finish the case wins. "Case Races" can also be team oriented.

Another bingeing game is "Power Hour". Now many people are fooled by the amount of alcohol involved in the "Power