A stanza from the poem that a 13-year-old wrote after Brad McCue drank himself to death captures the tragedy of binge drinking: Now people are sad/Now people are crying/Because of your choices/Because of your dying.

Brad was a junior at Michigan State University when he downed 24 shots of alcohol to celebrate his 21st birthday. His blood alcohol level was 0.44 when he died -- more than four times the legal limit.

Unfortunately, Brad's story is one of many sad tales of campus binge drinking. Each year, college students are killed, injured, assaulted, or negatively affected in many other ways because of alcohol abuse. Simply put, binge drinking is drinking too much alcohol in too little time. Researchers define binge drinking as five or more drinks in a row for men and four drinks for women. According to the most recent Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study, two out of five college students are binge drinkers. Alcohol is involved in two thirds of college student suicides, 95 percent of violent crime on campus, and 90 percent of campus rapes.

Fortunately, prevention efforts are taking place in college campuses and communities throughout the country. For instance, A Matter of Degree (AMOD) is a $17.5 million effort by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the American Medical Association to curb binge drinking. AMOD established 10 campus-community partnerships comprised of college administrators, elected officials, students, parents, law enforcement, concerned bar owners and community residents to work together to discourage the behavior and practices that help sustain high-risk drinking.

"This project differs from past efforts to reduce high-risk drinking by identifying it as a public health issue," said Tracy Bachman, project manager of the Building Responsibility Campus/Community Coalition formed by the University of Delaware and the city of Newark. Bachman said that enforcing stiffer penalties, notifying parents of drinking violations, and increasing the number of alcohol-free activities has led to fewer policy violations and has reduced the "secondhand" effects that high-risk drinking has on other students and community members. In addition, Newark has reduced the density of bars on Main Street and lowered the BAC level for DUI to .08. Early results from the Harvard study indicate a five percent drop in binge drinking rates at the University of Delaware; more students are choosing to abstain from alcohol as well.

Other AMOD participants have had promising results as well. For example:

• Louisiana State University and the city of Baton Rouge established alcohol-free family zones and non-alcohol beverage stations at all public parades, festivals and fairs.
• The University of Colorado banned beer sales in its football stadium, resulting in a 70 percent decline in arrests and a drop in the number of assaults.
• Florida State University banned alcohol advertising on campus and increased the availability of substance-free housing.
• University of Iowa and Iowa City participants beefed up liquor laws and penalties, eliminated a campus pub, and created an alcohol-free tailgate party area.
• Lehigh University in Pennsylvania experienced a dramatic reduction in crime, assault and public drunkenness when it instituted new student alcohol policies.
• The University of Vermont and the city of Burlington developed policies that are included in annual liquor license renewals for bars in the city.
• The University of Wisconsin at Madison agreed not to sell alcohol at sporting events in their new Kohn Center, forfeiting $500,000 in alcohol revenues from one hockey season alone.

"This is a challenge for all campuses," said Sudi Ceglare, project manager of the RWJ Partnership Council in Madison, Wis. "Initially we were seen as this big thing that would take students' fun away. But a real networking has begun, and campuses are moving toward common solutions. We're reaching a point where the alcohol industry can't just look at us and turn away. We're too big a neighbor to ignore."

Ceglare said that sororities have also become part of the solution at UW Madison, going "dry" by not having any alcohol at house parties. "Eventually fraternities do what sororities do," said Ceglare. "Students are learning how to stay safe and have fun at the same time."

--Published October 8, 2001