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Anybody that wants to get alcohol can get alcohol.
When people go to frats and parties like that,
it's definitely provided there for you.
You can get it from a keg.
You can get it from anything.
You go to a party, and there's garbage cans full of beer.
Binge drinking.
Constant drinking.
One after another, after another, after another.
They do it all the time.
A lot of kids drink every weekend.
It's so easy to find someone who is 21
who will get it for you.
Older brothers and sisters or, I mean, even just people that
live right next door.
I feel like students kind of just drink whatever
they can get their hands on.
I think kids that are underage engage in drinking simply
because that's often the culture of a lot of college atmospheres.
I think it's just something that has been a continuous cycle
over years and years and years-that it's just the
culture of college in many ways.
Definitely underage drinking is culture.
I think a lot of it has to do with, kind of, half the school
being underage and half not, and how that kind of relates
people hanging out with older people.
And it's become something that's just a part of college.
I will say at least 75 percent have done something,
whether it's just take a shot or have drunken a glass or
a bottle or anything like that, it's at least 75 percent.
With a lot of students, especially freshman coming
straight from high school and home, they're excited to be away
from their houses, so they're into engaging in college and
they think that underage drinking is the thing to do.
I think underage drinking, for some students, see it as
a rite of passage as they're moving from high school to
college, because for the first time they are away from
their parents, they're meeting new friends, all of their
social networks are gone, for the most part.
And so that is their way of getting into new social events.
I think the general college drinking culture is
"the more the better" and "everybody's doing it."
It's cheap.
It's easily accessed, and it's acceptable.
It's an acceptable drug that people can get and
use to excess.
I think that a lot of college students have had underage
drinks before they've been into college, and I think a lot of it
happens in the summer going into college because they're aware
that it's gonna be there on campus, so they're trying to
experience it before they actually arrive.
But a lot of students, too, do decide to drink when they
first come to college, and that can be a problem because
a lot of college students don't know their limits then, and they
get into dangerous situations where you drink too much.
Health professionals on campus can promote wellness and safe
activities by educating students on alcohol, underage drinking,
and alcohol problems.
I think that's most important is, a lot of students come in
maybe not knowing about limits, blood alcohol content,
all of the important specific little things that
really do make a difference.
So I think just educating them on all of those topics so
they know what to do in situations, if they get into
a bad situation where a friend is really drunk.
'Cause I know, as a freshman,
I didn't know really anything about alcohol.
I wasn't exposed to it in high school.
So it was something that was totally new to me.
It's kind of a culture shock, at least it was for me,
for the risks of alcohol.
And they're not aware of the large quantities or
the large amount that can be provided to them.
I don't think college students are aware of the risks that
alcohol comes with.
I think that a lot of colleges try to convey the risks to them
and they tell you, but they don't realize, like,
"Oh, that could happen to me.
I could drink too much.
I could-"you know-" I could get in a dangerous situation
where the alcohol is affecting me."
And I think that a lot of students
just are not really listening.
I think the health side is definitely ignored.
I think when they think consequences, they think of
getting caught because they're underage, but, I mean,
obviously of greater consequence is your health and
what you're doing to your body long term.
I believe students really engage in underage drinking,
especially the binge drinking, because they think
everybody else is doing it.
And informing them not everybody is doing it, you know,
social marketing campaigns seem to work where there are
also alternative activities going on at the same time.
Students really engage in them because they want to fit in.
Offer students support, offer students alternative programs
and the information and the knowledge that
no, not everybody is doing it, and it's okay.
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I believe that-that our education does keep
the students safe.
It gives them a little bit of a broad spectrum.
You know, sometimes this is the first time that they are
actually away from home, and they're not hearing from
mom and dad, they're actually hearing from the law enforcement
officer or from a campus spokesperson about the risks and
the dangers of underage drinking.
As far as speaking with the parents, I would encourage
parents to talk to their-their students before they go to
college about underage drinking, some of the repercussions,
some of the dangers, of underage drinking.
I think, as with most things with parents, they think it's
everybody else that's doing it, but not my kids,
when they come to campus.
So it's-it's an issue that they're aware that it goes on,
but not that their students,
their children, are involved in it.
And that is an issue.
I think parents can really communicate, need to
communicate, with their children, realizing that their
children are like other children that have the same temptations.
So a lot of communication and support early on,
before they come to campus, being more open.
It's not an all or nothing, being more open to the students
and answer questions,
answer legitimate questions that they have.
I think primarily it's the parents' jobs to educate
their children on the risks of alcohol, just because the
parents are going to educate their children on everything
else, why wouldn't they educate them in terms of alcohol?
Especially when it can be such a deadly thing in the end.
It's their responsibility to teach, you know,
being responsible, drinking responsibly.
But I also think it helps when the colleges will back that up,
because kids are going to be more pressured to drink when
they're at college-they're away from home, from their parents;
but if their parents have given them the foundation for it, and
then the college helps to support them, I think that that,
overall, makes like a cohesive environment.
As adults and administrators, in addressing the underage drinking
situation, I think we would be remiss to be ostriches with
our head in the sand.
Students are going to drink.
It's just really important that we understand that and
impose on them some of the measures that they can take
to be safer and be smarter and still have a good time.
I think what incoming freshmen can do to prepare
for the drinking culture on college campuses is to
prepare themselves mentally about it, and realize before
coming in that it is something that really does happen and
it's something that they're probably going to encounter
within their time in college.
But to set boundaries for themselves before they even
go out and participate in drinking,
know what their limit is, and be educated on the topics
in order to stay safe about it.