Binge drinking may not be on the rise overall, but college women's drinking habits throughout the country are catching up to those of college men, according to research released recently by the Harvard School of Public Health.
The study showed that three times as many college women in 2001 as in 1993 reported being drunk on 10 or more occasions during the previous month.
In addition, the study found that the percentage of college students overall who binge drink has remained fairly steady at approximately 44 percent since 1993.
But the study also found that the number of students at all-women colleges who drank four or more drinks in a sitting in the previous two weeks rose from 24 to 32 percent.
The data may indicate that women have become more comfortable participating in the same drinking activities as men.
"There's no taboo on women getting drunk anymore," said USG president Nina Langsam '03, who is also co-chair of an Alcohol Coalition committee on education and communication, a part of the Trustees' Alcohol Initiative.
Langsam said she thinks that some women may drink more to feel they are equal to men.
"If the men are setting the bar at 'X' drinks, the women are going to compete and do the same," she said.
Another study released yesterday by the federally funded Task Force on College Drinking found that approximately 1,400 college students are killed each year in alcohol-related incidents, most of which are motor vehicle accidents.
The report estimated that drinking by college students contributes to 500,000 injuries and 70,000 cases of sexual assault or date rape. Also, 400,000 students between 18 and 24 years old reported having had unprotected sex as a result of drinking.
This month is national Alcohol Awareness Month. University health services is coordinating a program for National Alcohol Screening Day program in McCosh's Goheen Library.
Students can go to the screening to fill out questionnaires or talk privately to counselors if they think that they or someone they know might have an alcohol problem, said Gina Baral, coordinator of health promotion services.
The counseling is both confidential and free, Baral said. "It's designed to screen for high risk drinking practices," Baral said. "We hope that [those people] would seek help."
In addition to peer pressure, many students come to the University with their drinking habits already hardened, Langsam said.
"Drinking really starts in high school for the problem drinkers," she said.
The implementation of the alcohol coalition committees, which only started in the past few months, must be tuned to the needs of students here, she said, adding that she does not yet know what those particular needs are.
Langsam said most students already know the potential consequences of drinking.
"If we do our campaign properly, it'll convince people on the fence not to drink so much," she said.
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