Alcohol is the Central Factor in College Rape

Preparing to Send Students Away to College - Be Wise

My Alma Mater - Hokie Mascot

This summer, I visited my alma mater.  I was surprised to see that the cellar door of one of the popular drinking spots was still swinging for the students.
Driving around town, I reminisced over my college days.  I remember the lonely feeling of leaving home for the first time.  I recall my first friends and the late night phone calls to go to the cellar for a beer after a night of studying.  As I got to know more people, I would visit fraternity parties and field parties, attend dances, or sit with a group in the dorm and play quarters.  This was a time of extended adolescence, a period of growing up and out of the nest and into the career world.  I guess I thought of it as a rite of passage . . . .
Over the next few weeks, many families will be sending their young adults off to college.  Some of these students will be leaving home for the first time.  College brings unexpected pressures.  Pressures that include living with roommates, being away from family, balancing classes, living on a shoestring and developing a healthy social life.  Some students will decide to pledge a sorority or fraternity and enter into the fall "rush" period. Weekend gatherings with free flowing alcohol will abound.  Koolaid or fruit punch mixed with grain alcohol may be served out of iced down coolers or bathtubs.  Parties will offer plastic cups of free or cheap keg beer.   With an ID (real or fake), students hang out at local clubs drinking with their new friends.  
Along with the new freedoms, comes an experimenting in sexuality.  It is not uncommon for a group of guys and a group of girls to go out on a weekend night and end up going home with a new partner.
Inebriation smooths the process of easy hook-ups.  

Many parents see these activities as a "rite of passage."  Something that happens in college and will be outgrown.  Is it wise to look the other way and consider binge drinking and easy hook-ups as a right of passage?

Greek's Cellar the watering hole I went to while a student in college.

Here is what Professor George W. Dowdall at Saint Joseph's University and co-author of a 2004 study of alcohol on college campuses says, "Binge drinking isn't a harmless rite of passage but a risk factor in violence against women.  Institutions of higher education need to change the culture of college drinking in order to make colleges safer and healthier environments."
In fact, the study shows that binge drinking is the number one public health problem among college students – associated with a range of consequences that include lower grades, vandalism and physical and sexual violence. 
College campuses where over 50% of the students drink alcohol, experience an increase in acquaintance rape.  Acquaintance rape is when two people know each other and have non consensual sex which often occurs under the influence of alcohol. According to a Harvard College Alcohol Study, alcohol use is the central factor in most college rapes.  Young men and women may not call it rape - they may see it as a hook up gone bad or a college experience.  This viewpoint does not alleviate the scars that may occur from this experience, not to mention an unwanted pregnancy or STD.

I am writing this blog as a wake up call for families and students.  I hope you will discuss the reality and dangers of life at college.   My concern is for students to be careful in college.  Be wise and do not go home with someone you have just met.  Be wise and travel or go out with a friend.  Be wise and watch out for each other.  And most of all - do not be overly trusting.  Yes, have fun and remember to play it safe.

To read more on this study check out: http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/college/a/blcas040214.htm
To visit my web site: www.stages2change.com