Wouldn’t it be great if the college served alcohol on campus? That is probably the thought that many have in mind.

But.

Have you thought about the consequences of drinking on campus and do the PROs really outweigh the CONs?

Drinking at college has become a ritual that students often see as an integral part of their higher education experience.

Some students come to college with established drinking habits, and the college environment can lead to a problem.

According to the 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), 49.3% of full-time college students ages 18-22 drank alcohol in the past month; and, of those, about 27.4% engaged in binge drinking during that same time frame.

For the purposes of this survey, binge drinking was defined as consuming five drinks or more on one occasion for males and four drinks or more for females. However, according to the survey, some college students drink at least twice that amount, a behavior that is often called high-intensity drinking.

Furthermore, academics can start to become a problem.

About 1 in 4 college students report experiencing academic difficulties from drinking, such as missing class or getting behind in schoolwork.

In a national survey, 40% college students who binge drank alcohol at least three times per week were roughly six times more likely to perform poorly on a test or project as a result of drinking, contrasting 7% of students who drank but never binged. The students who binge drank were also five times more likely to have missed a class 64% as opposed to the 12% who do not drink.

Harmful and underage college drinking are significant public health problems, and they exact an enormous toll on the lives of students on campuses across the United States.

Although some students come to college already having some experience with alcohol, certain aspects of college life, such as unstructured time, widespread availability of alcohol, inconsistent enforcement of underage drinking laws, and limited interactions with parents and other adults, can lead to a problem. In fact, college students have higher binge drinking rates and a higher incidence of driving under the influence of alcohol than their non-college peers.

For the dissenting view, click here.