750 Narrative

Lets be real here, going to college is one of the most worry filled times any of us will ever know or experience. This transitional phase from high school has characteristics that are obviously coupled with this anxiety. Leaving what you call home, all of your friends, gaining new responsibilities, harder school work, and learning to manage time are all good examples of this. Lurking under these seemingly obvious obstacles that go along with heading off to a new world is something that is causing more problems than ever before not only for students, but for faculty, and college surrounding communities alike. The amount of college students binge drinking has been rising steadily since the 1970’s, and has recently spiked reaching new heights and causing a gaggle of new problems for everyone involved. The word Binge may sound blunt and nasty, but in all actuality it is only fitting. Binge drinking is accomplished very easily in fact, four drinks for a female and five for a male by definition is all it takes to be a binge drinker.

Those hit hardest by this pandemic of extreme consumption (illegally might I add) of alcoholic beverages is the student body. Today’s youth is being crippled, and burnt from both ends. Students all over the country are not only losing their perfect grade point averages because of their seemingly unwise choices, they’re criminal record and integrity are also ate stake. College freshmen Chris Van House dually noted “ first semester was bad…SO BAD.” What he was referring to was the ridiculously large amount of alcohol consumption that ensued at the notorious Minnesota party school Mankato state. “ it was a pleasant change when money supplies ran out on campus, and funding of the daily party scene diminished.” Chris went on to tell me about his experiences on campus that semester. As a result to his consumption Chris ended his first stretch of classes having dropped or failed 5 of them, and with his first minor under his belt. He was one of an astounding 127 that received minor consumption’s that evening just before the end of the first block. Department of Public Safety Commander Matt DuRose stated “I hope the bust will set the tone for the next semester, namely that my department will have a zero tolerance approach.”

Mankato is one of the better-known “party” schools in the mid-west, and alcohol consumption in the 2009 year has gone up substantially. However, their grades and innocence were not the only things on the line at this college. MNSU Mankato is also highly recognized as one of the most STI ridden colleges in the country, having large outbreaks of anything from herpes to syphilis. These diseases have been spread throughout campus time and time again from the sharing of multiple sexual partners. Said sharing of many partners is attributed to underage drinking, and binge drinking at parties on a large scale. This is in part to the fact that the drinking is done at large scale social gatherings, and alcohol tends to lead to the loss of inhibitions. 

On yet another note, binge drinking in college does not only affect those who consume. Freshman at University of Minnesota Duluth Tim Casey says although he has been sober since entering college he too has been nit nard by the epidemic. While telling me about his experiences Tim went on to say“ I never knew being socially active there would be so hard without going out to drink… Even when I go to the parties around campus and stay sober, I still feel like an outcast.” This just goes to show that the kids who do binge drink in college emanate their negativity all over campus. To end these negative outcomes in college campuses all over the country many things are being proposed, and campus police are cracking down. Seemingly the most relevant to this issue however is whether or not lowering the drinking age to twenty-one is the right thing to do. The argument being that if students were pre-exposed to drinking before coming out to college, and it was not illegal students would have much less want to binge drink. If this was successful it would lead to less drinking overall on campus, and would draw students more toward the new work in classes they are not accustomed to, and away from the binge drinking they have already experienced and have their whole lives to experience if they so choose. In almost overwhelming confidence William D. Wade of University relation at UMD states “ Eliminate the drinking age, and in turn eliminate the majority of reasons students come to college and drink.” It seems like a great proposal to me indeed and there is only one way we will ever find out, too bad Mothers Against Drunk Driving will never allow that to happen.