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| Photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/stopalcoholdeaths/5525241334 |
Shot after shot, beer from the keg, countless cups of jungle juice, a sip from someone’s flask, and repeat until the night comes to an end. Binge drinking. While the formula and alcohol of choice may not be the same for every student, the impacts are similar.
Drinking is common in college. By no means is it expected that students never touch a drink in their four years of what seems like endless presentations, exams, group projects, labs, and homework assignments. However, binge drinking, also referred to as high-risk drinking should not be as common.
Prior to attempts made by Dr. Jonathan Gibralter, Frostburg State University’s former president, to drive down the extreme binge drinking rates on campus, high-risk drinking dominated student’s weekends.
Living up to its title as a party school, weekends for Frostburg students started on Thursday nights as opposed to Fridays. With no class the next morning, students had an extra night to party and partake in binge drinking, further contributing to the school’s ill-reputation.
Dedicated to building a better Frostburg, Gibralter implemented several new methods to decrease binge drinking and improve the quality of the campus and community.
“Dr. Gibralter was really, really engaged,” stated Lieutenant Scott Donahue of Frostburg State University Police. Alcohol programs and enforcing drinking laws are common duties of police departments, but Lt. Donahue noted that the level of support the FSU campus police department has received is not always so common on other campuses. Wanting to keep students safe when they are away from their parents, Lt. Donahue was pleased that campus officials and campus police could come together, keeping students out of harm’s way.
One of the first steps: more Friday classes. Though this would not stop parties and drinking throughout the weekend, it would hopefully discourage students from starting as early as Thursday night.
Friday courses steering students away from partying and binge drinking on Thursday nights is evident from the shockingly low 10-30 calls Safe Ride, a free van service operating Thursday-Saturday from 10pm-2am for students, receives compared to their jam packed Friday and Saturday nights. James Mattocks, former Safe Ride driver of two years, stated that on Thursdays people often just take advantage of the free ride, wanting rides to places like Seven-Eleven. The reasoning for this? “People have class,” he states, “if they go out, they’re going to walk.”
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| University vans used for Safe Ride parked at the campus police station. Photo credit: Taylor Whiteman |
Consequences, consequences, consequences. Another measure implemented by Gibralter was students who were arrested or cited due to activities relating to or involving high risk drinking were also to be disciplined by the university, and the incident was to be reported to their parents. There was no escaping punishment.
When students are cited, a judicial board referral is sent to Student Educational Services, and a notification remains on the students PAWS account for the duration of their time as a student at FSU. Guilty parties must appear in court, paying a $100 fine and $40 in court fees. If that student should find themselves back in the same unfortunate situation, those fees double each time. While this is categorized as a civil violation, skipping a court date for an alcohol citation allows the judge to put a bench warrant out for that student’s arrest, upgrading their civil violation to a criminal one.
The FSU Policy Statement Booklet states the sanctions for offenses to alcohol restrictions at FSU:
First Offense: Required completion of an online alcohol assessment and education program, a $25.00 Substance Abuse Prevention fine and a $75.00 Judicial Programs fine. Student's parent(s) or guardian, if under the age of 21, will be notified by mail of the violation.
Second Offense: Required completion of an online alcohol assessment and education program, and referral for a brief alcohol screening intervention referral for a brief alcohol screening intervention, as well as a $75.00 Substance Abuse Prevention fine and a $75.00 Judicial Programs fine will be assigned. In addition, there will be one calendar year of disciplinary probation. Student's parent(s)/guardian, if under the age of 21, will be notified by mail of the violation.
Third Offense: A third violation may result in housing contract cancellation and removal from University housing, or suspension from the University. Student's parent(s)/guardian will be notified by mail of the violation.
According to the Frostburg Community Coalition, a website that draws out the alliance between campus officials, community leaders, and university police’s efforts to reduce underage drinking in the community, many accomplishments have been made since the formation in December 2011. In just two years, noise citations had decreased by 20% and alcohol citations had increased by 50%. This was also due to Gibralter’s initiative to have campus police to patrol off campus neighborhoods.
Dating back to late August, Lt. Donahue reported there only being 14 citations for underage alcohol possession and 24 open container violations for the Fall 2015 semester. He noted that these numbers are rather average, but can be higher at times. However these numbers are remarkably different from when he began his career here in 1991. Though the University Police’s jurisdiction was only on campus at the time, Lt. Donahue noted that there seemed to be a lot more alcohol violations.
On campus efforts to tackle the binge drinking related issues, FSU’s Wellness Director April Baer referenced resources such as BURG Peer Education Network, Student Health Advisory Council, and the Alcohol Task Force. Carrying out Gibralter’s plans, these groups work to form “policies and practices to deter high-risk behavior through offering late-night programming and educational prevention campaigns,” said Baer.
Though late-night events are anticipated to sway students to not drink, many still do. Mattocks mentioned that during his time as a Safe Ride driver, there has been no difference with how drunk students tend to get, and that it often time depends on the on-campus events being held. He’s noticed that students often throw parties before or after on-campus events, and mentioned that as long as Safe Ride is running that night (sometimes does not operate due to the weather), then students still go out and drink.
As of 2012, the Frostburg Community Coalition has noted that the 30-block area adjacent to the campus is dominated by the student body, with 82% of the properties being rented by Frostburg’s very own.
“Typically, students who are consuming alcohol at higher risk are doing so at house parties hosted by individuals asking attendees to pay to be admitted to an “all you can drink” event with jungle juice being served,” stated Baer. Not only does she mention the safety hazard created by hosting such parties, but also the harm inflicted upon the community whether it be through noise complaints or physical damage.
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| Photo credit: Katie O'Neill |
Off campus living is just one of the many reasons for the formation of the Frostburg Community Coalition. Baer noted that the coalition works with campus and city leaders to provide increased police patrol during high-risk times of the year, and to inform off-campus students about responsible communal living amongst numerous other duties.
Events such as Halloween, Shamrock Shuffle, and homecoming can call be considered high-risk times of the year. Celebrating 25 years at campus police this past September, Lt. Donahue claims this past homecoming to be the best one. “No one got hurt, no one got killed, “people had a great time,” “good game,” “uneventful,” “noise complaints, but nothing serious,” was how he described the weekend that most students highly anticipate. Though the campus and off campus neighborhoods were heavily patrolled, not much enforcement was required.
With increased police patrol in the community, knock and talks were implemented. The well known term around campus refers to officers stopping by off campus properties and talking to the residence. Lt. Donahue stated, “We’ll do what we have to do don’t get me wrong,” but that the point of the drop-ins is not to see how many citations they can write, but to let the students know they are there. Though he knows it will not eradicate binge drinking, the goal is for the influx of officers to discourage high-risk behavior.
With a similar goal as the Coalition of simply wanting to educate students to drink responsibly without risk to the community or themselves is Reality Check, a student designed program that recognizes underage drinkng and provides tips to ensure the saftey of students while still having a good time.
To define binge drinking, the site gives students a breakdown based on gender. For the typical male as more than one or two drinks in an hour, or more than four or five for the night and more than one drink per hour for females, or exceeding three or four drinks in one night. The site goes further into detail with high-risk drinking and its relation to high-risk decision making, and knowing learning to know when you have had enough.
While Reality Check is a source for tips, it aligned with Gibralter wanting to implement a mandatory online alcohol course for students to get a handle on binge drinking. For this, AlcoholEDU was implemented.
Dr. Jesse Ketterman, the Dean of Students at Frostburg State University, knows that students drink. He also knows that no matter what the school does to intervene, it is up to the students to not binge drink or drink underage.
“It is really a student’s decision regarding further trouble. We provide educational sanctions that focus on good decision making,” Ketterman says.
"It is really a student's decision regarding further trouble. We provide educational sanctions that focus on good decision making," Ketterman says.
These educational sanctions consist of judiciary hearings, $75 fines for underage drinkers, and the required completion of AlcoholEDU.
“Our office tracks completion of the program and notifies students that do not complete the program regarding the requirement,” noted Don Swogger, SAFE Office director and BURG Peer Education Network advisor here at FSU. The course is required of all incoming students with 30 or less credits, and completion of the course is to be taken seriously.
While a username and password given from a student’s institution is needed to partake in the course which consists of surveys, readings, quizzes, and short videos to promote alcohol awareness, the EverFi website where AlcoholEDU is offered provides information on adressing alcohol abuse, the dangers of high-risk drinking, and even information on sexual assualt which can often be related with high-risk drinking.
When FSU students were randomly asked about their drinking habits, results varied. It was evident that how often students drank a week, how much they drank, and if their intentions were to get drunk or not ranged.
While some students really enjoy drinking, they choose to limit how much they actually do it for various reasons.
Art and design major Kayla Friedrich of La Plata, MD in her junior year answered these questions with: “I love Tequila,” “I drink once a week every week,” and “I don’t get drunk because I can’t afford to get drunk.”
Similarly, a student named Maya answered these questions with: “I love drinking,” “I drink once every two weeks. I have to balance it otherwise I’ll die,” “I’ve only been drunk once in my life on accident,” and “Drinking is not good for you.”
“I drink on the weekends: Friday and Saturday. Sometimes consecutively, sometimes not,”
“I binge it. It doesn’t take much for me” stated Dalton Ingram, physics major of Cumberland Maryland in his senior year.
“I drink on the weekends: Friday and Saturday. Sometimes consecutively, sometimes not,”“I binge it. It doesn’t take much for me” stated Dalton Ingram, physics major of Cumberland Maryland in his senior year.
While a portion of the campus moderately drinks and another consecutively drinks, the other portion refrains from drinking completely. Representing that portion is sophomore Kyle Myers of Chestertown, Maryland. The business administration major answered the questions with: “Zero! I don’t drink. School’s too important for me to get [involved in] that scene.”
Further illustrating the divide is what students choose to use Safe Ride for. Mattocks stated that while half use the free van service because they are too drunk and cold to make it home, the other half seem to make use of it because they live in “Edgewood and want to go to Seven-Eleven to get a ‘rello.” (Cigarello)
“If you can play music and make them laugh then you’re okay,” said Mattocks about chauffeuring drunken students from party to party on the weekends. Though he did not work every night during his time with Safe Ride, he noted that it was not uncommon for someone to vomit inside or outside the van once a week, and that there was always that one person “beyond gone.”
“At the end of the night, everyone’s quite drunk if they’re using Safe Ride,” concluded Mattocks.
“At the end of the night, everyone’s quite drunk if they’re using Safe Ride,” concluded Mattocks.
Frostburg is a college town with 31 retail outlets or establishments with a license to sell or serve alcohol within city limits, according to 2012 data collected by the Frostburg Community Coalition. Students seemingly had an endless supply of alcohol. Gibralter’s solution? To team up with local bar employees.
The Frostburg Community Coalition formed a partnership known as the Cooperating Alcohol Agreement with 19 local businesses, including: Dante’s, The Draft, FBar, HiWay Pizza, Wild Things, and Zen Shi to name a few. Under this agreement, the Coalition provided free responsible beverage training, posters to promote low-risk drinking strategies, and ID scanners to help prevent underage drinking from occurring in bars.
“They don’t have to agree to that,” stated Lt. Donahue. However, he thinks it is great that they do. As far as he knows, there have been no violations of the agreement.
The Core Institute, a small department within the Southern Illinois University Carbondale Student Health Center, has the largest database covering alcohol and drug use at post-secondary educational institutions. Every three years, the federally funded service releases the Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) survey, a comprehensive and thorough assessment documenting how students perceive alcohol and other drugs, as well as how often they use alcohol and other drugs.
The 2015 Core AOD assessment, revealed that the schoolwork of 47% of students at FSU had been negatively affected by alcohol consumption.
In 2006, Core revealed that the drinking rate of Frostburg students weighed in at 54%. This figure decreased to 41% in 2012 according to the Frostburg Community Coalition. According to Swogger, the drinking rate now stands at 42.9%, which is still below the national average of 43.9% despite its slight jump.
On a wider basis, college students who binge drink frequently are 21 times more likely to miss class, fall behind in schoolwork, get in trouble with the police and many other serious implications, according to the Alcohol Policies Project. The effect on schoolwork can happen directly, when the drinker faces the consequences of their actions, or indirectly, when the student drinker disrupts other students. Alcohol Policies Project also indicates that, nationwide, 71% of students have had their sleep or studies interrupted by an intoxicated peer.
Though Gibralter’s efforts have proven successful, there is still more to be done. Before his departure from the campus in the Spring of 2015, Baer noted the the Drug Free Communities Grant secured by the Community Coalition team. The federal grant of over one million dollars will aid the prevention and education initiatives of the campus community.
By Tiaju McCalup, with contributions from Katie O'Neill and Taylor Whiteman
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