A 19-year-old died at a Washington State University frat house on Nov. 12 and investigators believe alcohol may have played a role in his death. The body of a Cornell freshman who was last seen at a party was found near Ithaca Falls, according to the New York State Police. Alcohol was served while freshman were present at the party.

Society has a very specific idea of what it means to have fun in college. Movies, TV shows, and even parents’ stories of the good old days all work together to ensure that by the time new students arrive in college, many of them are already anticipating a world full of funny stories, crazy parties and a lot of alcohol.

However, this culture can be far more dangerous than it initially appears. In 2017, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism reported that about 35% of college students have engaged in binge drinking in the past month. The report also showed that there had been an estimated 1,519 alcohol related deaths as a result.

Universities are in many ways forced to act not only as schools but also as guardians. There’s an incredibly difficult line that schools have to walk in order to ensure that they are allowing students the independence to grow and mature while still keeping them out of harm’s way and ensuring that they actually live to see the future they’re working so hard to get to.

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This year, Syracuse University approached the task by wielding education rather than authority.  Working with an interactive online program called AlcoholEDU, the school has taken an important step towards communicating with their students rather than punishing them.

This approach has been a long time coming, though, and it certainly doesn’t mean that they couldn’t be doing much more to properly protect and educate the student body.

Ignatius N. Ijere, a an associate professor at SU’s David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics said that the primary problem isn’t one that belongs solely to Syracuse University or even, in a broader sense, to the college system.

“It’s not just the problem of Syracuse University alone — it’s a societal problem,” Ijere said. “We don’t worry ourselves with preventing the issue, and that’s why in any organization in this country people spend a lot of time talking about treatment. Why do we allow that to happen?  Why can’t we help to prevent it?”

Aside from using accredited and regularly reviewed programs such as AlcoholEDU, Syracuse also pioneers efforts such as connecting people struggling with substance abuse with peers who have triumphed over similar issues.

While these are ambitious and effective ways of addressing the issue at hand, however, they don’t feel like solid steps towards eliminating it. In some ways, these types of solutions may even keep the danger alive by providing a perceived safety net for those still deciding how they’re going to spend their free time in school.

Ijere cites American prisons as a direct consequence of this shortcoming.

“How much do we spend as a society on keeping people in jail or prison for substance related issues?” he said. “It’s very expensive, and it’s very scary. And when you ask about prevention, no one listens to you.”

Rather than continue in what could be an unending cycle of searching dorm rooms and shutting down parties, Syracuse University needs to collaborate with its pupils in pushing ever further towards education that enables prevention. Forbidding and confiscating harmful substances will never lead to a solution that effectively addresses the dangers of college drinking. If anything, it may even breed counterproductive hostility between the students and their school.

Before anyone can be expected to make a smart decision for themselves, they have to be taught why that choice is the smart one at all.

Rather than being taught how to deal with incidents when they arise and discouraged from participating in these types of pastimes, more effort needs to be put into making students aware of both the potential risks and benefits of their actions so that they have the chance to make their own, informed decisions as young adults.

Dylan Williams is a freshman in the transmedia department. His column appears bi-weekly. He can be reached at dwilli39@syr.edu. He can be followed on Twitter @_DylanFox_.

Published on December 2, 2019 at 9:44 pm