College alcohol woes worsen

College alcohol woes worsen
Schools in Maine seeking new ways to tackle problem
BY BETH QUIMBY
Blethen Maine Newspapers



First of two parts

At midnight last Halloween, Josh Youse rushed to the room of a Unity College freshman who had passed out from drinking at an off-campus party and been carried back to her room to sleep it off.

Youse, a resident adviser at Eastview residential hall, tried to rouse her. Instead of waking, she started dry-heaving.

Youse called for help, and emergency medical personnel managed to wake her, and determined she would be OK.

This was not an isolated event, Youse said. Encounters with alcohol-related violence, property damage and aggression at his college's small rural campus of 520 students in Unity are a regular part of his job.

"People's cars have been messed with. People individually have been messed with," said Youse, 23, a senior from Kutztown, Pa. "I don't know how to fix it."

Reports of college alcohol abuse have increased in the decade since binge drinking and other alcohol problems on campuses became a national issue, and seven years after Maine colleges and universities banded together to address the problem by forming Maine's Higher Education Alcohol Prevention Project.

"It is the largest single health and educational problem we have on campuses today. It needs to be front and center in all our conversation regarding college, college students and their risky behavior," said Dr. Paul Berkner, medical director of Colby College's Garrison-Foster Health Center.

Liquor law violations are increasing at Maine's colleges and universities. Statewide, the number of liquor law violations, such as underage drinking, reported by Maine higher education institutions to the U.S. Department of Education rose 57 percent from 2002 to 2006, the most recent data available.

The number of drinking-related incidents involving arrests or disciplinary actions reported by Maine colleges grew from 1,985 in 2002 to 3,120 in 2006. Nationally, 196,860 arrests and disciplinary actions were reported in 2002, compared with 251,462 in 2006, a 28 percent increase. Twice in the current school year, Maine college students have died in alcohol-related accidents.

http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/5028040.html

Colleges try ploys against drinking Strategies vary on Maine campuses, but problems persist
BY BETH QUIMBY
Blethen Maine Newspapers


Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

Second of two parts

Police and security officers patrol dorms. College keg parties have to be registered. Incoming freshmen take alcohol education courses as a condition of enrollment.

Even so, students don't seem to be fazed when police show up at parties to stop illegal off-campus drinking, said Hancock County Sheriff Bill Clark, whose department works with Maine Maritime Academy in Castine.

"They will sit there and continue to drink in front of you. They have a very casual attitude towards this type of violation. It is like, 'Oh, so what?' " Clark said.

College administrators say solving the binge and underage drinking problem on their campuses is complicated and potentially impossible. Although Maine colleges are trying a variety of strategies to curb alcohol abuse, their efforts have resulted in few positive results so far.

Liquor law violations reported by Maine campuses and those nationwide continue to rise. This school year, two freshmen -- one at the University of Maine, the other at Maine Maritime Academy -- died in alcohol-related incidents.

Today, almost every campus requires freshmen to undergo online alcohol education courses, designed to help students understand the consequences of alcohol abuse. Many colleges insist that students caught violating campus liquor rules undergo counseling.

Most colleges in Maine ban drinking games, such as "beer pong" or "caps," which make drinking a competitive activity. Some have adopted "good Samaritan" policies to encourage students to seek treatment for their dangerously inebriated friends without facing discipline or arrest.

Some of the measures were adopted after tragedies. Bowdoin College in Brunswick shut down its fraternities and banned hard liquor from campus after a visiting University of Maine student died from a fall off a fraternity roof 10 years ago.

Bates College banned all alcohol except beer and wine on its Lewiston campus after more than a dozen cases of alcohol poisonings surfaced during a Halloween party in 2000. Private parties were limited to no more than 50 people with no more than two kegs of beer.

http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/5030355.html