Underage drinking plagues campuses

By Michael Watanabe
Daily Forty-Niner

As a freshman at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 18-year-old Scott Krueger died during his fifth week of school after drinking too much at a fraternity party three years ago.

Kevin Gaines, a 19-year-old sophomore, and point-guard for the University of Michigan, was kicked off the basketball team after being charged with drunken driving after leaving a fraternity party.

The problem of underage drinking has been catapulted into the national spotlight numerous times, and there are still a lot of underage drinkers, according to a Harvard School of Public Health study.

The study, published in June of 2000, polled 7,000 underage drinkers.

"It seems to me that it's easy," said Sabrina Russo, a Cal State Long Beach junior majoring in international studies. "I mean, I always see underage people drinking."

Of the students polled, 63 percent had a drink within the last 30 days.

The study also concluded that underage drinkers did not drink as often, but drank more in one sitting.

Forty-two percent of underage drinkers surveyed drank five or more drinks in each sitting

Ninety-four percent said that getting to alcohol was easy, or very easy. Most got their alcohol from off-campus parties, dormitory social events, fraternity parties and on-campus dances, according to the study.

Making matters worse, one-fourth of underage drinkers aren't asked for identification, and one in five uses fake identification, according to the study.

The incidents and the study have led to reforms throughout the country. Last spring, the University of Mississippi at Columbia almost declared a total prohibition of alcohol in fraternity houses on and off campus, the Saint Louis Post- Dispatch reported.

The university now permits people of legal age to drink in fraternity houses, and allows alcohol to be served at events where parents and alumni are present.   The new university policy also holds outside vendors responsible for serving alcohol and providing transportation and security.

But the University of Mississippi at Colombia is not the only university that has taken action. Dartmouth University in New Hampshire has also implemented changes.

Out of concern for the high number of underage drinking incidents occurring on campus, the university is banning tap systems, mass refrigeration units, and permanent bars, according to The Boston Globe.

Even areas around universities are beginning to change. Fells Point, a local bar and restaurant in Baltimore, Md. has decided to stop marketing toward the college crowd by ridding itself of college nights, and cheap drink specials, according to The Baltimore Sun.

Students seem concerned.   "You can kill yourself or somebody else," said Russo. "The individual has to be responsible."