11/19/12 3:41 PM
(http://www.insidehighered.com)
11/19/12 3:41 PM
raucous behavior and negative consequences, Americans often think of only the last as a bad thing. Theres no consensus that alcohol use by college students is a big problem, Ehlinger said. Though there is agreement about preventing deaths, injuries and crimes, alumni and administrators often hearken back to being drunk in college and dont see binge drinking as a problem. And yet, underage and college drinking are where efforts to curb alcohol abuse are focused. Folks, by focusing on underage and college students, were missing the boat, he said. I think we are being stooges for the alcohol industry. They know what we do [on these issues] is not going to impact sales; theyre fine with us doing that. Its why, he said, Anheuser-Busch happily donates to projects like the National Social Norms Institute, whose executive director is James C. Turner, the current president of the ACHA and executive director of the University of Virginias department of student health. (Turner later defended himself, telling the crowd assembled to hear Ehlinger that the AnheuserBusch funding was a gift, they said 'do what you need to do,' and came only after the project failed to get funding from the National Institutes of Healths National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. He left the room a few minutes later to prepare for a lecture on the norms program, which had a far smaller audience than Ehlinger's talk, despite being in a larger room.) Though Ehlinger said he is not an abstinence guy, I do drink myself, he sees drastic changes in alcohol policy as essential to cutting down on dangerous drinking habits among students. He would like to see states and the federal government raise taxes on beer, wine and hard alcohol (its far too cheap, he said), and for the alcohol industry to stop advertising especially at and during sporting events. He also wants the alcohol industry to stop funding research on drinking, which he doesn't see as credible or coming from a place of good intentions. These arent things that can be done by colleges alone, he conceded. But, he added, I believe that college health has a lot more power and influence than most of us realize -- not to lead a unilateral war against underage and binge drinking, but to get politicians, health officials and business leaders to listen. Colleges work with governments and businesses in fighting health challenges like the H1N1 virus, meningitis and tobacco use, but alcohol has yet to become a priority. Presidents, in particular, should take the lead. We have let our college presidents off the hook. Particularly for those of us who are at land grant institutions, we are supposed to be there for the benefit of the state, he said. Its a responsibility that my university president has, as hes the president of a land grant institution to meet with the governor, the state legislature, the Minneapolis mayor and city council, and other government officials to say this is a problem. Ehlinger favors a broader societal look at drinking, but admits that college presidents, vice presidents of student affairs and other officials will all look to college health professionals for ways to at least be seen fighting campus drinking. We are on campuses and alcohol is taking a toll, its affecting us right now. We cant just say were doing this policy work, he said. So what we should do is implement as many best practices as we can, like clarifying norms and performing behavioral interventions. We need to do that, but its not going to change the overall numbers.
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11/19/12 3:41 PM
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