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“I wanna go to college for the rest of my life. / Sip Banker’s Club and drink Miller Lite,” sings Asher Roth in his 2009 hit “I Love College.” While many laugh at his outrageous lyrics, his description rings true to many youth on college campuses across the country.
More and more universities are making efforts to halt underage drinking, with Stanford among them; Stanford sent a mixed message by eliminating one effective penalty against the families of youth who drink, and yet was exempted from Santa Clara County’s restrictions on illegal drinking.
As of January 2009, Santa Clara County’s underage drinking law states that all parents, tenants and party hosts, with the exception of landlords and Stanford University, will be held responsible for parties involving underage drinking on private property, and will be fined up to $1,000 for the misdemeanor.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, 95 percent of Stanford’s 6,600 undergraduates, the majority of them under the legal drinking age of 21, currently live in university-owned housing. This confuses the issue of parental responsibility, hence the exemption from Santa Clara County’s ordinance.
While it is understandable that landlords, who forfeit legal responsibility of the property to their tenants, are exempt from the ordinance, Stanford should still take full responsibility for all students under the age of 21 who attend their institution and all illegal actions they take.
However, Stanford is tightening restrictions in response to the exemption by delaying the move-in day for student residents closer to the first day of classes, in an attempt to reduce the amount of parties that occur before classes begin. They have also banned alcohol from fraternity parties, partly in response to underage drinking incidents that occurred in 2009.
According to Campus Safety Magazine (www.campussafetymagazine.com), in the 2008-2009 school year alone, 44 Stanford students under the age of 21 were hospitalized for alcohol abuse, 73 were arrested for possession of alcohol, 13 for being drunk in public and five for driving under the influence.
Stanford is also increasing the amount of campus police officers on nights when parties are scheduled, in addition to requiring incoming freshman to pass a three-hour online course on alcohol abuse.
Stanford and several other colleges made efforts to curtail underage drinking on campus grounds and infamous “party schools” should take note. “We already have a significant commitment to curbing underage drinking and require that on-campus parties be registered,” Jean McCown, Stanford’s Director of Community Relations, said in a February San Francisco Chronicle article. “We were concerned that the county regulations would send those parties underground and out of sight.”
While Stanford has taken responsible steps in the right direction to curb underage alcohol abuse, exposure to alcohol most often starts in high school. According to The Mercury News (www.mercurynews.com), a Gilroy high school sophomore died of alcohol poisoning at a slumber party in December 2009. “It’s just a very, very tragic, senseless situation,” Greg Quirke, a pastor at South Valley Community Church in Gilroy, said.
With underage drinking on the rise among high schools as well as colleges, Lowell has increased efforts to educate students more on alcohol. “We offer brief intervention services,” Wellness Center Coordinator Jennifer Krasner said. “We offer information on alcohol and help to anybody who asks for it and to any class whose teachers invite us to.” Lowell has also increased awareness through interactive panels on the catwalk, demonstrating the statistics and effects on alcohol abuse. High schools across the country should follow the same steps Lowell has taken towards combating underage drinking.
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