Though exaggerated by the media, the use of alcohol functions as a main artery in the college experience.
The freedom college offers results in nearly unregulated consumption of the forbidden fruit denied to all of those under 21.
But the abuse and misuse of alcohol by minor college students has prompted colleges and universities across the country to enact stronger regulations and education techniques to improve the situation.
UCLA is one of the many universities enforcing the Internet course AlcoholEdu.
The course addresses the health risks and social dangers of drinking in excess, and it consists of video, text and interactive activities.
Personally, I found AlcoholEdu often dwelled on obvious facts irrelevant to established drinkers, and it was hard for me to take the program seriously.
Starting last year, the course is required for all entering freshman and transfer students.
AlcoholEdu attempts to flood participants with information in the three hours it requires of its participants.
“AlcoholEdu was informative, but the information was redundant, time-consuming, and I forgot most of the facts over the course of the year,” said Krishna Curry, a second-year biology student.
This was a sentiment repeated to me by other students.
It is difficult to estimate the impact AlcoholEdu has made in its two years of use at UCLA.
According to Nancy Greenstein, director of Police Community Services at UCLA, the number of calls responded to for students under the influence have actually increased since AlcoholEdu has started being enforced.
However, this fact means little, as it does not account for an increase in student body or the number of students who are now, because of AlcoholEdu, more apt to notify authorities of alcohol abuse.
While AlcoholEdu is a valiant effort to curb student alcohol intake, it is not a sufficient solution. Conceptions and choices concerning alcohol develop much earlier than in college.
According to the AlcoholEdu Web site, about 50 percent of students begin drinking in high school. This data suggests we should address the dangers of alcohol at an earlier age, and encourage safe habits of consumption.
It is inconceivable that a three-hour computer session will reverse four years of high school drinking.
The reality of the situation is that by the time many students are of college age, they already have preconceived notions of drinking.
“Honestly, I took the information into consideration,” said Vanessa Ying, a third-year communications studies student. “But it was not effective enough to stick and change my behavior.”
Student binge-drinking is a plague hitting most colleges across the nation.
This is a clear indication that the established laws and regulations on the societal level are not working.
AlcoholEdu cannot fully succeed because its measured attempt at change is not strong enough.
It is time to install new alternative methods that promote safe drinking habits to the youth of America. Introducing alcohol in the home is a much healthier debut into drinking for young people than learning to drink with peers.
According to research published in the Journal of Adolescent Health in 2004, adolescents whose parents introduced drinking to them at home were one-third as likely to binge.
It is sensible to conclude that many students do not drink safely because they were never taught how.
It is time to look at the act of alcohol consumption as something that needs to be learned, like driving a car or writing in cursive.
Though many will agree that the current legal drinking age is pretty ridiculous, an instantaneous change would undoubtedly be met with countless dilemmas and hurdles.
Regardless of the law, parents should have the authority to be involved participants in their child’s alcohol education.
This entails properly teaching their children safe habits for alcohol use such as responsible intake and knowledge of limits.
College binge-drinking is not a trend, and will only decrease when the function of college life is examined.
For now, college acts as a segue to alcoholic freedom as much as it does a career path.
The only way this can be solved is for students to have a built knowledge of alcohol established from practice and education.
While AlcoholEdu should definitely continue to be used as a tool, it cannot be the only answer to years of the neglect of proper instruction.
We need to teach students at a younger age how to safely consume alcoholic beverages, instead of ineffectively waiting until those bad habits have already been established.
E-mail Enclade at genclade@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.