Yale Studies, Drinks Heavily
At Yale,
students drank heavily before the release of a report attempting to discourage unsafe drinking on campus. And after the report came out...they still do.
...Some students said they think the new regulations have done little to change student behavior. Erin Frey ’08 said students drink just as much as they used to, but it simply takes more effort to find ways to do so.
“The amount of drinking hasn’t changed — just the amount of steps we have to go through to have a party is annoying,” she said. “[It] hasn’t changed how people drink or don’t drink.”
I know it's difficult to argue for heavy drinking on college campuses. But I will! I've always felt that excessive drinking, for most students, is a great way to get the exuberance of youth out of their system in a relatively harmless fashion. It's like burning your hand on a hot stove—once you've done it....
Although it is, now that I think about it, more fun than burning your hand on a hot stove.
Plus, it creates any number of humorous memories for later life, and probably inspires warm feelings towards the university where said drinking took place, which can only be good for alumni giving.
Why do you think they have open bars at reunions?
Granted, some people get hurt drinking, and some people do stupid things. But we can't entirely legislate such behavior away, and I'm not entirely sure that we would even want to... Modern college students are automaton-esque enough as it is. Let 'em do some stupid stuff. They'll learn from it.
