Why Colleges Haven't Stopped Binge Drinking

Today's installment of the special report by The Chronicle of Higher Education takes a look at how colleges have tried to rein in binge drinking.  Over the years there have been multiple studies, years of research, and a variety of programs, but nothing seems to really make a difference.

Some of the numbers are eye-opening:

• The binge drinking rate among college students has hovered at over 40% for the last two decades.
• 46.8% of high school seniors drank alcohol in the last thirty days
• only 25% of college students don't drink
• 599,000 college students injured while under the influence of alcohol
• 97,000 college student report being sexually assaulted or date-raped due to alcohol

As parents, I wonder what you expect a college to do, or are you like the UGA parent in yesterday's article who got mad when their son was arrested for underage drinking/public intoxication?  Perhaps you agree that a college's primary responsibility is to simply keep your child safe but not monitor his or her behavior.  Maybe you agree that drinking is simply part of college life, and you don't really believe there is a problem.  

Whatever your views on drinking in college/binge drinking, the article http://bit.ly/1yehQ3Z is well worth reading.