Alcohol perceptions Survey results show students believe that occasionally getting drunk is okay as long as it does not interfere with academics and other responsibilities. On the survey given by the President's Task Force on Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse, students at Ithaca College reported performing poorly on tests, missing classes and experiencing memory loss due to their use of alcohol and other drugs. Students reported drinking an average of 4.6 drinks at parties or bars,but they thought their friends were actually drinking 5.8 drinks. At the last social function students attended, they reported drinking on average 5.27 drinks, and about 15 percent of these people would have preferred to drink less. The students at the last function, however, believed that others in attendance had drank 6.24 drinks and thought approximately 21 percent of these students would have preferred to drink more.
Students see drinking alcohol as a central part of the social life.
About 95 percent of the students thought drinking was central to males and 88 percent thought it central to females. In terms of drugs, students perceive marijuana use to be approximately twice as high as it actually is. Other illegal drugs are believed to be used six times more in a year than they are really being used, students reported in the survey. Alcohol policies examined Seventy percent of students surveyed at the college did not know if the college had any alcohol or drug prevention programs, but about 93 percent of the students knew the college had alcohol and drug policies. About 50 percent of the 681 faculty and staff surveyed said they had never read the policies, and 47 percent of them said they did not even know where to find the policies.