
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 8, 1994                    TAG: 9406080421 
SECTION: FRONT                     PAGE: A2    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 
DATELINE: 940608                                 LENGTH: WASHINGTON

TOO MANY COLLEGIANS MAJOR IN BINGE DRINKING, REPORT SAYS

{LEAD} College campuses are awash in alcohol, with white men the biggest drinkers but a quickly increasing number of women now getting drunk as well, a commission of academic and civic leaders said Tuesday.

``Binge drinking on our campuses has devastating consequences,'' from rape and violence to academic woes, said the Rev. Edward A. Malloy, president of Notre Dame University and chairman of the private Commission on Substance Abuse at Colleges and Universities.

{REST} ``Alcohol abuse must not be accepted as simply a part of the `rites of passage' of college students,'' Malloy said. ``It is unhealthy and it is contra-educational.''

The 16-member commission, set up two years ago by the Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, urged colleges to take steps to discourage binge drinking, including banning alcohol ads and promotions from campus mixers and athletic events and from campus newspapers.

Malloy and others expressed alarm at statistics showing a sharp rise in the percentage of college women who drink to get drunk, from 10 percent in 1977 to 35 percent today.

``Women are accepting the worst aspects of the macho world,'' said Joseph A. Califano Jr., the former health secretary who is president of the Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse.

The 98-page report, ``Rethinking Rites of Passage: Alcohol Abuse on America's Campuses,'' cited statistics from a federal student survey and other studies that indicated:

Fifty-one percent of college men and 37 percent of college women reported going on drinking binges - five or more drinks at one time - in the past two weeks.

Thirty-five percent of men and 21 percent of women had gone on binges at least twice in the past two weeks.

Ninety-five percent of violent crimes and 53 percent of injuries on campus are alcohol-related.

In 90 percent of all campus rapes, the assailant, the victim or both had been drinking.

Sixty percent of college women who acquire sexually transmitted diseases, including herpes and AIDS, were drunk at the time of infection.

Students spend $5.5 billion on alcohol each year, more than on their books, coffee, tea, sodas and other drinks combined.

Malloy said white males are the biggest problem drinkers, averaging nine drinks a week. Hispanic men downed almost six drinks a week, white women four drinks, black men 3.6 drinks and black women just one drink.

Joe Paterno, the Penn State football coach and commission member, said, ``The single biggest problem we have in coaching today is alcohol.'' It generally afflicts white players, not black athletes, he said.

Malloy said fraternity and sorority students knock back 15 drinks a week, three times as much as other students.

by CNB