A recent study conducted by the Center of Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA) found that 49 percent of full-time college students binge drink and/or abuse prescription and illegal drugs.

NIU health educator Steve Lux said the accepted definition of binge drinking is different for males and females. The definition classifies binge drinking as five or more drinks in one sitting for males or four or more for females.

“The key point in that is what’s a ‘sitting,'” Lux said. “The definition that people are using for binge drinking was placing students in a category of high risk drinking when it wasn’t true.”

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) redefined binge drinking as being within a two-hour period of time as opposed to “a sitting.”

A lack of leadership

Susan Foster, vice president and director of the division of policy research and analysis within CASA, attributes these alarmingly high rates to the lack of leadership among university administration.

“There has been a profound failure of leadership on the part of college and university presidents and trustees to address this problem,” Foster said. “Instead, there has been a tolerance, if not facilitation, of a culture of abuse on college campuses by college leadership and administrators, parents, alumni, students and the surrounding communities.”

An exaggeration?

CASA’s statistics may be shocking to some, but Lux said the information in the report may be exaggerated to exemplify CASA’s mission.

“They are spinning these numbers in a negative way, trying to make problems look worse than they are,” Lux said. “This is not uncommon. The way we get people to pay attention to our issue is to let people know how bad it is. The presentation of the issue can become tainted.”

Lux said alcohol abuse is not as big as CASA claims but remains a problem on college campuses.

“Alcohol is the most-used drug on college campuses and causes the most problems, but I dispute the fact that most college students abuse alcohol – on our campus as well as nationwide,” Lux said. “I’m not saying that problems don’t exist. There are a lot of students with alcohol abuse problems, but [they are] a minority.”

Education as a defense

Lux said the social expectations students have when they attend college to excessively drink is a danger.

“I do feel that NIU students, like other college students, misperceive the number of people who drink and the number of people who drink heavily,” Lux said. “This perception is colored by media and their expectations when they come to college. We want to let them know that drinking to excess Thursday, Friday and Saturday night every weekend is not the norm.”

Lux recommends stronger education within universities, not stricter rules, to prevent binge drinking. He said harsh restrictions on alcohol usually lead to negative outcomes.