The culture of consumption

[Editor's note: The last names of several students interviewed for this story are withheld because they share their experiences drinking underage.]

It's the last Friday night before finals week, and 20 or so glassy-eyed students are milling around outside Thirsty Turtle when a fight breaks out.

Josh, a 19-year-old visitor from Tennessee, falls to the floor after being thrown into a window. Shards of glass cascade to the ground around him as a police officer runs to break up the scuffle.

"Oh man, that's my friend," said Wade, a 19-year-old sophomore. "He can't get arrested, not tonight. He doesn't even have his own fake [ID]."

Josh, who was uninjured and allowed to leave once the fight was quieted and the glass swept up, said going out drinking is, and always has been, an integral part of the college experience.

April, a 19-year-old blonde smoking a cigarette outside of the Thirsty Turtle with a friend, agreed, adding that students, like herself, drink because they want to let loose and have fun.

"If you want to find alcohol, you're going to find alcohol," April said. "It's pretty easy to come by, and I know I drink because I feel freer. I can be more myself and have more fun - and there's nothing wrong with that. It's so not as big a problem as everyone makes it."

This culture of drinking, which students say goes hand-in-hand with college life, has come under intense scrutiny in recent months as a result of university President Dan Mote's and University System of Maryland Chancellor Brit Kirwan's decision to sign onto the Amethyst Initiative - a petition that urges university administrators to examine binge drinking among college students and the effectiveness of the legal drinking age.

"Education and changing people's view is our best weapon on this," Mote said. "Because clearly the law isn't working."

The signers of the Amethyst Initiative have come under fire from various organizations and other universities, but most members of the campus community say they are proud of the university's attempt to do away with the taboo associated with alcohol.

Though he admits that he is in the minority among university staff, Associate Director of Resident Life Steve Petkas said it's about time the legal drinking age was reexamined.

"I think it was a courageous statement by the presidents that signed [the petition]," Petkas said. "I admire that courage and feel that the effects of a prohibition are problematic. It creates something that's forbidden and people are more likely to pursue than they would if it was an acknowledged freedom."

Petkas pointed out that young Americans between the ages of 18 and 20 have many "adult" rights such as the right to marry, serve as a juror, gamble, drive, vote and serve in the United States military. But they cannot legally enjoy an alcoholic drink. This, Petkas said, just doesn't make sense.

He went on to say that students should be given an opportunity to learn responsible drinking behaviors while in college by consuming alcohol in an accepting environment comprised of adults as well as peers.

"There's this cultural element out there that says you're supposed to come to college and party hardy, that you're supposed to do all this drinking," Petkas said. "When I was a resident assistant in 1976, one of my first programs was a two-kegger . . . but no one at that program got stone-puking drunk. The key is there was supervision for the entire program."

But according to the College Life Study conducted by the Center for Substance Abuse Research, an on-campus research group that focuses on alcohol behavior, students' drinking behaviors are largely defined by the time they turn 18.

Frostburg State University President Jonathan Gibralter accepted an award earlier this semester for cracking down on student drinking. Frostburg has seen some progress - off-campus alcohol citations have decreased by nearly 40 percent from 2006 to 2008. His "zero-tolerance" approach has gotten both negative and positive attention, but overall, Gibralter said, he thinks it's working.

"Really, it's less about 'zero tolerance' as it is about zero willingness to accept that a student might die from underage drinking," Gibralter said.

Public health professor Kenneth Beck, who has done extensive research into the culture that promotes excessive drinking, said that while Gibralter's approach may be effective at Frostburg - a state university in rural western Maryland with 5,200 students - the climate of this campus is very different and must be dealt with accordingly.

Beck added that the University Senate - the most powerful on-campus legislative body that directly advises the president on university policy - reconvenes in the spring semester. The Good Samaritan policy, a proposition that would provide amnesty for students who call for help for their dangerously intoxicated friends - should be on their radar, he said.

"You should be able to call in, risk-free, to get help for someone without endangering yourself," Beck said. "That's rewarding proactive behavior. That's a step in the right direction. The university needs to be proactive."

University officials also noted that, in addition to prevention, students should be able to enjoy their weekends without a beer bong or an ice luge.

"A bunch of people sitting around someone screaming 'Drink! Drink! Drink!' is absolutely unnecessary," Petkas said. "Binge drinking is becoming more problematic because students are growing up in these cloister settings without experience, restraint or other things to do on Friday nights."

Students agree but insist underage binge drinking will still pervade throughout the college social scene regardless of what steps are taken to eradicate the practice.

"People drink because they're not allowed to, or because they want to have fun or de-stress," said 20-year-old sophomore Stephen. "Whatever it is, people do it and they're going to keep doing it. They'll never stop this."

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