Senior English major
For many students, college is a time of exploring new freedoms. From a first opportunity to live independently to the ability to come and go as they please, college is important in shaping the way we grow as adults and discover who we are as people. Exposure to alcohol is one of these freedoms of college life.
While many high school students have had some type of experience with alcohol, college is entirely different. The availability of alcohol and the pressures to drink alcohol increase tenfold once students enter the university climate. The reasoning for this type of pressure is usually attributed to “the college experience,” in many sources.
The news media is a major contributor. Any movie or television show that features a scene or story line centered on a college typically uses stereotypes of alcoholism and raging parties, depicting the college experience as a constant drunken stupor with the occasional break for a class or exam. What else should young students expect when the media constantly tells them college is where people go to drink?
Another contributor to the alcoholic college experience idea is the bar industry. College towns have become prime spots for hip and trendy bars to capitalize on young drinkers. These bars begin as entertainment for students of a legal drinking age, but soon draw younger students who want to be a part of the action and learn what it’s like to be of legal drinking age. These students usually obtain illegal fake IDs and attempt to get into the bars to fulfill desires to act older.
Many organizations within the school system also play parts in furthering this college-alcohol connection. Fraternities and sororities hold socials and events at bars or other venues that sell alcohol, and the younger members of these groups want to forge connections and drink with older members who can do so legally. Sporting events also have this type of impact, as many students tailgate for football and soccer games, with hours of drinking and partying, making underage drinking difficult to monitor and prevent.
Drinking in college is an individual decision. But the idea that drinking is crucial for the college experience is simply not true. The college experience is so much more than going to a bar and getting drunk, only to forget the fun you were attempting to have in the first place. No student should feel like they have to drink to make the most out of these four years. The ability to think and decide for yourself, is the essence of becoming an adult and the most important part of the college experience.
Return to the Opinion section’s discussion of drugs and alcohol on the campus.
