One of five female college students are alcohol dependent and might be in more danger of sexual assault, a recent study shows.

The study of 277,000 New York female undergraduates said about 21 percent are alcohol dependent, reporting signs of blackouts or early morning drinking. The survey was taken in 1986.

Beth Beetham, chairman of NIU Sexual Assault Task Force, said alcohol dependency can cause serious physical and emotional health problems and might also serve to increase the probability of date rape.

The New York study said women’s alcohol use can lead to sexual problems regarding sexual decision making, sexual harrassment and rape.

“There is a connection between acquaintance rape and alcohol” when both the victim and the assailant are intoxicated, Beetham said.

She said from the number of acquaintance rapes reported at NIU, task force members see a great number of victims who had been drinking, adding that date rape often occurs in a “party situation.”

After drinking alcohol, the woman’s ability to make sound judgments and good decisions is impaired and good logic is not used, Beetham said.

However, she said, “a woman has the right to go to a party and have a drink, but that doesn’t mean she’s asking to be raped.”

Michael Haines, NIU Health Enhancement Services coordinator, said more than half of all acquaintance rapes occur when either the man or woman or both are intoxicated.

He said drinking seems to give both men and women a sort of sense of identity and both tend to use alcohol to deal with sexual inhibitions.

College-age women have just as much pressure to drink and get drunk as college-age men do, Haines said. This pressure might cause a problem for women because they generally do not have to drink as much to be equally as intoxicated as their male classmates, he said.

Women are encouraged to avoid drinking games at all costs, Haines said, because their specific purpose is to get people drunk. “The most common purpose in that case is to get a woman into bed.”

He said women also should avoid fruit punch because the amount of alcohol used to make them is often unknown.

Beetham said women need to make their sexual desires clear and they should not get caught in a situation where their decision-making abilities are impaired.

“If they don’t want sex, they need to be clear and not give mixed message,” she said. “No means no.”