Testimony

Remarks on the Excessive Consumption of Alcohol among College Students

I want first to say welcome to Penn State's University Park Campus to the the members of the Senate Law and Justice Committee. We're pleased that you have convened for this hearing at our Conference Center Hotel.

Senator Heckler has asked me to speak to you today about excessive alcohol consumption among college students and what Penn State is doing to address this problem.

I wish to begin on a more general note by saying that it is my strong belief that the most fundamental problem facing colleges and universities in America today is the challenge of developing character, civility, citizenship, and social responsibility in a society that sometimes gives the impression that such virtues are optional. This is a critical part of our educational mission and one of the most profound contributions institutions such as Penn State make to the future. Yet it is also one of our most elusive goals to achieve.

No aspect of this challenge is greater for our young adults today than the excessive consumption of alcohol and the behaviors that surround it. This is not a problem unique to Penn State. I have raised this issue in my work with the national Kellogg Commission on the Future of State and Land-Grant Universities where it has struck a chord as it also has done in our own campus communities.

Surveys have demonstrated that excessive alcohol consumption has become normative among college and university students. A survey conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health in 1993 reported that nationally, 44 percent of all college students were binge drinkers, defined as consuming five or more drinks in a sitting for men and four or more drinks in a sitting for women during a 2 week period.

About half of these binge drinkers, or about one in five students overall, were frequent binge drinkers, drinking heavily three or more times in two weeks.

About two in five students drank without binging.

Only about one in six--16 percent--were non-drinkers.

There are unmistakable consequences of such behavioral patterns. Among the Harvard Study respondents, frequent binge drinkers were 25 times more likely than non-binge drinkers to report having had five or more problems such as doing something they regretted, missing a class, forgetting where they were, getting behind in school work, arguing with friends, engaging in unplanned sexual activity, getting hurt, damaging property, and so on.

Many students reported experiencing problems due to other students' drinking: more than 40 percent said they had had to babysit a drunken student or had their studying or sleep interrupted. More than a fourth said they'd been insulted or humiliated. About a fifth said they'd had a serious argument or experienced an unwanted sexual advance.

While only a fraction of one percent of the Harvard Study respondents considered themselves to be problem drinkers, 39 percent said they drink to get drunk.

These are the overall characteristics found at colleges and universities nationwide.

Such patterns may be exacerbated for many schools, including Penn State, where our large size, rural location, and other factors have perhaps tended to encourage a culture of excessive drinking within the student body. Two-thirds of our entering freshmen have had no involvement or only a modest level of involvement with alcohol. Yet data have shown that within their first week at Penn State, half of these students have experienced binge drinking. More than half of each class becomes heavy users of alcohol. As many as 7 percent will drop out for reasons related to drinking.

I am very concerned about the impact of such behavior on the health, safety, and personal and academic development of all of our students. I began to highlight this issue for the Penn State community last fall at our annual student Encampment that opens each academic year. The response of our student leaders and student organizations has been highly supportive, as has been the reaction of the broader community as I have expressed my concerns there as well. I have met with the downtown business association, State College neighborhood associations, and the medical and administrative directors of Centre Community Hospital. I've spent some Saturday nights downtown, including one recently on patrol with the local police. I've also recently had the opportunity to meet with the director of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, who has been extremely supportive of our efforts.

Across these groups, there has been strong and encouraging cooperation leading to many of the initiatives I will highlight in just a moment.

But first let me say that my objective is not to eliminate alcohol but to change the norms of behavior at Penn State from excessive and underage drinking to new norms of academic and social responsibility. We want our students to engage fully in their studies, particularly during the school week. We also want them to have healthy social and recreational opportunities. We want a civil and caring community at Penn State as well.

Working with student government leaders to provide an attractive and constructive alternative to social events centered on alcohol, we have opened the HUB, our student union building here at University Park, twenty-four hours a day with expanded late-night programming on the weekends. This initiative has been an overwhelming success. Soon after the program began last October, it attracted somewhere between 450 and 600 students on a weekend. The last weekend of programming in mid-April served 1,550 students. Word obviously has spread, and our program momentum has grown. I expect that next year we will see far more than the total of 13,000 students who attended HUB late night events this year.

I proud to say Penn State's Interfraternity Council is providing outstanding leadership on alcohol issues. Working with our local chapters, IFC is in the process of implementing a number of policy changes that promote academics and de-emphasize the use of alcohol. Two fraternities--Phi Delta Theta and Sigma Nu--have announced plans to be alcohol free by the year 2000.

Efforts to raise awareness of alcohol issues come from a wide variety of sources including the staff in our Office of Health Promotion and Education and posters and fliers in the residence halls. In cooperation with Intercollegiate Athletics, alcohol education messages have been delivered on scoreboards in Beaver Stadium and the Jordan Center. One of these says: "Good fans are hard to come by. Celebrate safely."

Among our students who report they had heard a message about alcohol this year, 28 percent said they heard one from the faculty. This is wonderful evidence that Penn State professors are truly committed to the welfare of their students.

Among other efforts, Penn State's Offices of Judicial Affairs, Health Promotion and Education, and Residence Life are working with local police and district justices to coordinate interdiction and intervention efforts of our campuses and communities. The Moderation Management Program at Penn State Behrend in Erie is one such program.

Penn State campuses around the state are involved in a variety programming efforts. Penn State Behrend and Penn State Hazleton, for example, have joined University Park in establishing a Life House in their residence halls. These substance-free dorms for students are proving tremendously popular.

Leadership for many of these efforts at all Penn State locations is provided by the Commission for the Prevention of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drug Abuse, composed of faculty, staff, and students from across the university.

We have just begun to collect systemwide data for all of our campuses so that we may monitor the trends for our students throughout the state. We have several years of such data for University Park, where the progress is extremely encouraging. This year, compared to last, shows increased awareness among our students about the problems associated with drinking and a decrease in the consumption of alcohol reported. Problems related to students' own drinking have decreased in every category we've asked about. I will highlight just two: In 1996, a third of the students at this campus said they missed class due to drinking; that percentage fell to less than 20 percent this year. Last year, 27 percent of those surveyed said they got behind in school work as a result of drinking; the figure dropped to 17 percent this year.

Drinking by others also is creating fewer problems at University Park in all of the areas that were considered in the study.

These data are part of the Penn State Pulse Survey conducted by our Student Affairs staff. I have brought copies to share with you today.

Clearly, we are making progress not only in reducing excessive consumption of alcohol at Penn State but in increasing civility in our campus community. There's no doubt we have further to go, but we've made a strong start. I am most encouraged by the enthusiasm for these efforts, most of all by the response from our students. I believe the vast majority of them welcome the chance to be responsible. They only need our encouragement and support.

Thank you.