Getting Serious About Eradicating Binge Drinking

In Henry Wechsler’s, “Getting Serious about Eradicating Binge Drinking”, he discusses the issue of binge drinking. Binge drinking is an extensive problem on college campuses. The majority of colleges merely focus on the student, rather than what encourages students to drink. Fraternities, sororities, and athletics are huge sources of the students on campus who drink. There are many approaches colleges can take to decrease the problem, and many colleges are already getting a head start. It is also important to not ignore how often colleges indirectly encourage students to drink (20). First of all, binge drinking has been a problem for some time now. It has climbed over the past few years, capturing more attention from the media. A study from the Harvard School of Public Health found an increase of intoxication, drinking solely just to get drunk, and also in alcohol-related problems. Among these problems are injuries, drunk driving, violence, and difficulty in academics. For example, of the students that drink, more than half of them said that their motivation was “to get drunk.” Even though many students have suffered alcohol-related deaths, the amount of binge drinking is still on the rise (20). With that said, binge drinking has been so ingrained at colleges for so long that it is extremely hard to completely wipe-out the problem in a short amount of time. Colleges have been having closed-minds when it comes to focusing on the alcohol problem, focusing only on the students instead of giving the same attention to the factors that contribute to these drinking behaviors. Focusing directly on the student overlooks the environment and other factors that support their behavior. Students who binge-drink think they are not doing anything wrong because “everyone else is doing it.” Informing students about how many other students binge can help reduce their behavior. It is hard to change a norm that is followed by many students, but focusing on the disruptive behavior

Cited: Wechsler, Henry. “Getting Serious about Eradicating Binge Drinking.” A Brief Guide to Writing from Readings, Fifth Edition. 20-24.