By Tracie Sweeney
Although the perception may be that college students nationwide are bingeing on their drug of choice - alcohol - what is the reality at Brown? How does Brown ensure the safety and health of students, whether drinkers or not, while balancing legal concerns and its mission of education and counseling?
A number of offices and departments have worked hand in hand over the past decade to educate students about alcohol use, implement policy changes, encourage students to look out for each other, and ultimately to hold students accountable for their decisions.
What does research reveal about Brown students and alcohol use? Two major surveys offer some insight. But first, a few definitions used in alcohol studies. "A drink" is defined as 12 ounces of beer or 6 ounces of wine or one mixed drink or one shot of distilled spirits. "A binge" is five or more drinks on one occasion for men, four or more drinks on one occasion for women; there is no time limitation included in this definition. The definition comes from the observation that, statistically speaking, it is above this level of consumption that the risk of negative outcomes (for instance, arguments or injuries) increases.
What the data show
The data show that approximately 7 percent of Brown students don't drink at all, and nearly a third of first-year students abstained from alcohol in the 30 days before the survey, according to MaryLou McMillan, director of the Office of Health Education. The data also show that 68 percent of Brown students had fewer than three drinks in the last month, and that 64 percent of Brown students do not binge drink.
Fifteen percent of Brown students report binge drinking, and 17 percent of them binge-drank three or more times in the previous two weeks, compared to 22 percent at other large private colleges in the studies.
"A lot of the behaviors we're talking about are fairly predictable, developmental issues for young adults," said Robin Rose, dean of Student Life. "Experimentation and testing the limits are part of that."
Even so, the majority of Brown drinkers do not abuse alcohol, McMillan notes. Yet a survey phenomenon called sampling bias comes into play and colors the perceptions of students and others. "It is known that people consistently overestimate their neighbors' behavior," McMillan said. "High school and college students do that particularly with alcohol and drug use, thinking that `everybody's drinking,' when in reality the data clearly show that everybody isn't. We're able to feed back that information to students so that when they say, `Well, I have 20 drinks a weekend and practically everybody does that,' we can tell that student, `Well sure, 10 percent of the Brown population does that - you're drinking with the heaviest-drinking 10 percent on campus' "
Ten percent of any population - including Brown's - is addicted to alcohol, said McMillan, and another 10 percent drink problematically. "Many of those in that group of 20 percent will come to terms with their addiction in the next 5 to 10 years and will lower their consumption," said Toby Simon, associate dean of Student Life. Students who wish to become or stay abstinent from alcohol can become part of sobriety group led by Bruce Donovan, associate dean of the College and one of the few deans of chemical dependency on any campus. Students involved in campus violations that also included alcohol may also be referred to Donovan.
Policy and prevention
Over the past decade, Brown has implemented a number of policy changes and prevention programs so that students can make informed decisions and be held accountable for their actions. For instance, attending the orientation meeting "Community Values: Alcohol and Other Drugs" became a requirement for all first-year and transfer students, Simon noted, and the dean's welcoming remarks include warnings regarding state laws and University policies on alcohol. The audience is reminded that in disciplinary procedures and decisions, alcohol is considered an exacerbating factor, not a mitigating one.
Simon also noted that a number of changes were implemented in 1991, including policies forbidding kegs and other "large-volume containers" of alcohol on campus, the closing of basement bars in residential fraternities, and the elimination of alcohol from faculty/staff events that included students.
Perhaps one of the biggest changes concerns the process by which social events involving alcohol are registered and conducted on campus. "This became an educational moment," Simon said, where the city and the University can place greater emphasis on the accountability of the sponsoring organization. Security issues, the interplay between food and alcohol, who specifically will be serving alcohol and whether the servers have been trained to know the signs of inebriation and how to refuse to serve a guest are all discussed. Once the campus form is completed to the University's satisfaction, the sponsors must then seek a temporary permit from the city to sell alcohol. The city outlines relevant laws about alcohol service before granting a Class F license to sell alcohol.
"The idea here is to educate people about the responsibility that comes with having an event that involves alcohol," Rose said. "In addition, if an event has a problem - somebody gets drunk, there is a fight or other trouble - we have on record the names of the people who signed off as the responsible parties and by doing so assumed the responsibility for managing that event. In other words, you have some way of holding people accountable."
Changing community norms
Education about and prevention of alcohol abuse or misuse on campus is not just one office's job, McMillan noted. For prevention efforts to be successful, the messages must be consistent, repeated and interwoven with many aspects of students lives. The messages come through many sources - Athletics, Health Education, Health Services, General Counsel, Police & Security, Psychological Services, Residential Life, Student Activities and Student Life - and in such forms as seminars, peer training, group or one-on-one counseling.
The repeated, multiple messages seem to be having an effect in changing community norms. Alcohol is playing less of an important role in such events as Spring Weekend or Campus Dance. "The changes in community norms coincide with what we can see and measure," Simon said. In the year following the banning of kegs, there were fewer noise disturbances, fewer runs to the emergency room, fewer reports of destruction of property. "Many of the problems associated with alcohol use were diminished a little bit - maybe 10 percent - but enough for us to think that the banning of kegs resulted in a reduced amount of consumption," she said.
The other change in community norms is the increase in students who complain about other people's alcohol-related behavior. "The sense that that's what you have to put up with in college has decreased," said Simon. "People who do not wish to put up with that have been given permission by others on campus to complain."
Holding students accountable
By providing a network of education, information and counseling, students are able to make informed decisions about the use of alcohol on campus. Ultimately, they are held accountable for their behavior. Instances of alcohol-related misbehavior can result in a disciplinary case.
"Any time in a disciplinary case where we see or think alcohol or drugs may also have been involved or used, we also will include an alcohol violation in the charge letter that accompanies the disciplinary action," said Thomas Bechtel, dean of undergraduate counseling in the Office of Student Life. "It is then up to the dean or the hearing body to determine whether the offense was alcohol-related or not. That gives some teeth to the fact that the misuse of alcohol can be exacerbating rather than mitigating offense."
Concern runs high for students involved in alcohol misuse. Medical treatment and education are offered - and in certain instances, required - for students involved in an alcohol-related offense. Students who have been treated for intoxication or alcohol-related injuries by Brown EMS or University Health Services meet with a health educator for assessment of and education about their alcohol use. Repeat occurrences yield stronger measures, with a third occurrence generating a disciplinary response from the Office of Student Life. Occasionally, medical leaves are offered to students with alcohol-related problems, Bechtel said. "Infrequently, someone with such a problem who doesn't take a leave can be given involuntary leave for a demonstrated problem," Bechtel said. To be readmitted, such students must show evidence of treatment.
"The biggest challenge for us is balancing our responsibility in several different areas" - enforcing the law's needs, encouraging responsible behavior and protecting the rights and personal space of students who choose not to drink at all, Rose said. "Overlay that into the community with very diverse goals and expectations about alcohol and it becomes a complicated issue right off the bat," Rose said.
"But one of the things we do best is function as an educational institution," she continued. "It makes absolute sense that at every possible juncture, whether it's in the context of a disciplinary activity or not, that we're always looking for the educational potential or moment in that interaction."