Battling the Beast

Eleven years ago this week, BJ Miller '93 and his friends were returning from a party when they decided to climb atop the Dinky. Moments later Miller was lying unconscious after his watch came too close to the power lines above the train.

It is a story that is threaded through Princeton lore. The incident caused Miller partial loss of both his legs and left arm. He later sued the University and New Jersey Transit for negligence, alleging that they failed to notify passersby of the danger. The University and NJ Transit blamed alcohol and named a fraternity and two eating clubs as culpable third parties.

Miller's case and student deaths at other colleges have shaped University policy to curb binge drinking. The broad-based Trustees' Alcohol Initiative was conceived to find a weapon against one of higher education's most complex foes.

Princeton has not been alone in its fight. Binge drinking is a problem on the radar at campuses across the country. Many administrators have mounted bold campaigns to address it, but few have found success.

Despite these efforts, the percentage of binge drinkers nationwide has remained steady over the past eight years, according to the Core Institute Alcohol and Drug Survey. At Princeton, the number of binge drinkers has risen from 40 percent in 1993 to 45.8 percent last spring.

What administrators have learned is that binge drinking is not something that can be reduced with blitz campaigns or a heavy purse. The issue must be swatted at from all angles, and over time, things will change.

Miller's accident was followed by a massive effort by the University to confront binge drinking. In the 1990s, the University mounted its strongest challenge with disciplinary changes, a new campus center and a plan to provide social alternatives and the money to back it.

From tightening regulations to changing the social scene, the University has pooled its resources to target binge drinking. The trustees' report called for dozens of initiatives to alter the campus culture. The approach was idealistic: students, faculty, administrators and alumni uniting for a common cause.

However, the alcohol initiative has failed thus far to dent the percentage of binge drinkers, according to the Core survey.

That is not surprising, says Bob Schiaraldi, McCosh Health Center's alcohol counselor. "Any of these efforts can be effective," he said, "but it's going to take time."

In interviews last week, administrators said the greatest effect of the alcohol initiative has been on moderate and non-drinkers.

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"I think it's [the trustees'] view that the alcohol initiative has had an effect not on the hardcore binge drinkers but on the group of students that are in the middle," President Shirley Tilghman said.

Initiative-funded programs have provided social alternatives to binge drinking. With an allowance of $100,000 a year, the Trustees' Alcohol Initiative Fund has sponsored concerts, dances and theme parties. The most prominent event brought comedian Jon Stewart to Dillon Gym. The only condition attached to initiative funds is that events occur between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. on Thursday and Saturday nights — peak times for student drinking.

The Frist Campus Center, which opened in the fall of 2000, has provided venues for these activities — a social scene not centered on alcohol.

The University had opened several pubs over the years when Chancellor Green housed the student center. Each time, the idea was lauded as a means to reduce alcohol abuse. And each time, the pub closed because of sparse interest.

"We never filed the request [for a license] because we felt it wouldn't be approved and questioned whether it would be appropriate," said Paul Breitman, the campus center director.

But the focus of the initiative was to get everyone talking. Many proposals recommended discussion, not action. But encouraging conversations about alcohol has been a major action in itself, administrators said. The key to fixing a cultural problem is by infusing the topic into the culture.

A marketing campaign launched last year aimed to do just that. Through posters and ads, the University publicized the perceived and actual norms for student drinking.

Similar campaigns have seen remarkable success at other campuses. In the past decade, alcohol abuse at Northern Illinois University has been cut nearly in half because of the posters, said Michael Haines, who helped develop the method. Success has even been evident in the short term, he said. The University of Virginia witnessed a 20 percent drop in just two years.

Princeton administrators have considered expanding the campaign here, where 97 percent of students in the Core survey said the social atmosphere promotes alcohol use.

At Princeton, "social atmosphere" is synonymous with the 'Street.'

Incidents where intoxicated students were transported from Prospect Avenue to Princeton Medical Center have made binge drinking an issue in Princeton Borough politics. And that has encouraged the perception that eating clubs are to blame, said Cindy Drakeman '02, the Inter-Club Council chair and Tower Club president.

Though students surveyed in the 1998 Core survey named the 'Street' as the most popular place to drink, club officers have stressed that the clubs provide a safe environment for students who opt to consume alcohol.

In dormitories, drinking "happens in less controlled environments, and people have access to hard alcohol which they don't out here at the eating clubs," Drakeman said. "It's rare that you'll find anyone whose job it is to supervise [in the dorms]."

The ICC has initiated its own efforts, independent of the University. In 1994, the council adopted a statement of principles, limiting the number of nights the clubs can be on tap and restricting accessibility to the clubs and to their alcohol.

Clubs agreed to hold dry Bicker and ban freshmen from entering the clubs during orientation week.

The trustees' initiative created a library of ideas to discourage dangerous drinking. In addition to common methods, more extreme measures have been proposed. University Public Safety recommended on-campus parties be registered. The ICC suggested installing non-alcoholic beer taps in clubs. McCosh is considering notifying deans if repeat patients do not attend alcohol counseling.

But none of those ideas have been looked at in depth.

A new task force created by Vice President for Campus Life Janet Dickerson hopes to provide a forum to study the campus environment and brainstorm new approaches. The goal is to sustain the momentum of the alcohol initiative.

Over the years, administrators have formed assorted alcohol task forces, all of which were short-lived. However, Dickerson said she is confident the new committee will be effective because students today have a fresh perspective. They have experienced anti-drinking programs since grammar school.

In addition, Tilghman has discussed binge drinking with students since taking office this summer. One idea she praised would be for the clubs to open taps at 8 p.m. and close them at midnight.

The proposal was: "What if you shortened the length of time and made the whole night an earlier night?" she said. "It's one that I hope the ICC will think about."

Behind visions of a social life less dependent on alcohol stands the University's disciplinary policy. In addition to encouraging responsible drinking, the University remains firm in its stance on the side of the law.

Since the alcohol initiative was adopted, the number of disciplinary penalties issued has decreased significantly.

In the past two years, the total of violations acted upon per year has fallen below 100 for the first time in more than a decade, according to the discipline committee's annual reports.

Meanwhile, the number of students checked into McCosh for alcohol-related injuries has jumped more than 50 percent since the early 1990s, according to health services statistics.

But these two seemingly opposite trends do not conflict, said Dean of Undergraduate Students Kathleen Deignan, who chairs the discipline committee. The figures have been affected by the University's concentration on safe drinking.

"The reason we have more people in McCosh is that we're doing a much better job telling people to seek medical assistance," she said. "In the past, we didn't get the message out that we were drawing a distinction between McCosh and having that remain a health issue and not a discipline issue."

That distinction has been difficult to draw. In many cases, the drinking age stands as an obstacle to advocating behavioral change. It may have even exacerbated the problem on college campuses by making alcohol a forbidden fruit. Binge drinking is far less prominent in countries with looser restrictions, administrators say.

"We have to tell people to abide by the law, but if you choose to drink, make responsible choices. We're saying two different things," Deignan said. "We can't be in a position where we're going to ignore the law, but does it make it more complicated? I think it does."

Dickerson also said the drinking age might be accentuating the problem on college campuses.

And they are not alone among university leaders. The presidents of Dartmouth and Middlebury colleges have also expressed frustration with the law.

But changing the law would not be easy, Dickerson said.

"We're in a very conservative society," she said. "Even if deans from across the country rallied the government to try to change things, it would not be successful."

Though the process is slow, and the problem of binge drinking may seem intractable, at least one survey has shown a decrease in drinking among young people. In 1979, 75 percent of people 18 to 25 said they drank in the previous month, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Now that figure is 60 percent.

Many argue that binge drinking is a fixture of American college campus culture. The same problems have plagued university administrators since the 19th century.

One thing that is clear is that a reduction in binge drinking would require an overhaul of students' perspectives. Perhaps the elixir for binge drinking lies in what many perceive to be its roots.

"My instincts are that the only way to solve this in the end is peer pressure," Tilghman said. "We have to get the student body to impose peer pressure, for drinking to become really uncool."