Many consider drinking to be part of the college experience.

While this remains true, it was proven that drinking heavily is not part of that experience.

According to the National Social Norms Institute at the University of Virginia, 20 years ago, NIU Health Enhancement Services started a program to reduce drinking-related injuries. Initially, they tried traditional methods to decrease these injuries, but heavy drinking actually went up from 43 percent to about 45 percent. So they began a social norm campaign to show how more students drink safely than those who do not; heavy-episodic drinking, alcohol-related offenses, retail keg sales and alcohol-related injuries all decreased. Since the program was so effectual, it should be continued and other social norm programs should be used for other social problems.

“Norms are the ‘rule of engagement,’ so to speak, that help society to function,” said sociology instructor Christine Janis. “We learn the norms during socialization and rarely think about them unless someone goes against the norm.”

Through ads in the Northern Star, posters and other forms of media, Health Enhancement Services made it known that less than 50 percent of students reported heavy-episodic drinking, rather than 70 percent like students perceived in a survey done by the National Social Norms Institute at the University of Virginia. Although conforming is not always favored, there are circumstances where it is beneficial to follow the trends. In this instance, there was a misconception about the trend that obviously had some consequences. So why would students think that the majority of their peers are heavy drinkers if it is a bad thing?

“We tend to talk and hear more about those who do drink rather than those who don’t,” Janis said. “For example, it’s a much ‘cooler’ story to talk about someone who got drunk at a party than about someone who didn’t. There’s a similar phenomenon that happens with crime reporting, where what we hear about far outnumbers what police actually deal with on a daily basis.”

As it seems, getting drunk is quite the conversation piece. Whether this is a good or bad thing is up to one’s own ethics. The point though is that for every one of these discussions on inebriation, the facts about it should be known simply for health reasons.

“Our objective was not to tell students that drinking is bad,” said Steve Lux, health educator for Health Enhancement Services. “We don’t tell you what to do; we tell you what you do.”

Lux went on to say that the program ended in 2002 after there was a change in administration because some people disagreed with the research, the details of which Lux would not go into.

Any program that publicizes healthy behavior as normal, though, should be implemented and continued. It is unfortunate, however, that people cannot realize this for themselves and must learn it from an outside source.