Unfortunately, for many young men and women, these social gatherings involve drinking, which may, in turn, lead to some sort of risky or criminal behavior.
Experts agree the problem has reached monumental proportions.
Serious efforts to address the issue have been sporadic and ineffective in the past. However, a new resolve is building across the country, bringing with it sensible, creative and more effective methods of reducing college drinking and its grim after-effects. Although for some time colleges and universities have had programs and personnel in place to respond to the problems associated with alcohol use and abuse, statistics showed that second-hand effects of campus drinking remained alarmingly high. According to the 1999 College Alcohol Study, programs aimed at educating students and their parents, as well as bridging the gap between perceptions and actual drinking habits in the school environment, have now been implemented at one in nine colleges. The study gathered self-reported data from a survey of more than 14,000 students enrolled at 119 different colleges in 40 states.