Hannah Puderbaugh | Contributing Writer
Buena Vista University (BVU) has all new incoming freshmen take a class through Alcohol EDU. This class collects data from year-to-year for the freshmen classes. As drinking is seen as an increasing problem amongst underage students, BVU looks at this to see how each incoming class varies and to determine drinking patterns on campus among freshmen.
According to Associate Dean of Students Dale Scully, at BVU, precautions have been taken to help the students be safe when consuming alcohol. Although BVU acknowledges the law in Iowa forbidding underage drinking, they hope to help legally aged students choose to not drink or to drink responsibly. They understand students are often curious, want to experience things that previously have been unknown, and that most underage students will at least try alcohol at some point.
One of the ways the University begins the educational process about drinking and its consequences is to have the incoming freshmen enroll in and complete the Alcohol EDU course. This course educates incoming students, not only about safety measures when it comes to alcohol consumption, but it also breaks down how much alcohol people can drink without entering a high risk situation.
Many on campus wonder about the effectiveness of Alcohol EDU and if drinking among freshmen has increased or decreased over the years. Does Alcohol EDU help reduce high risk drinking?
“I feel like I hear about drinking more this year,” sophomore Holley Withee said. “I lived in Liberty last year, and there were no issues with drinking, but I have heard of some this year.”
Senior resident advisor Sarah Chandler said, “I lived in Liberty last year, and I am not sure if drinking is increasing or if I just wasn’t aware of it as a freshman. It is definitely more ‘hush-hush’ in the substance-free dorms.”
However, in spite of student “feelings” about the topic, Scully reports that drinking among freshmen students is not increasing.
“There has not been a rise. According to the data provided by Alcohol EDU, there has been a decrease in high risk drinking among freshmen,” Scully said.
Scully also noted that when looking to see if one dorm on campus has a higher percentage of underage freshmen drinking, one must consider that most freshmen students are placed in the Pierce and White residence halls. Therefore, it is more likely to receive complaints of underage drinking in these halls.
Scully added that the Alcohol EDU data also shows that students are not drinking excessively but rather, moderately and often abstaining from drinking alcohol all together. The statistics from Alcohol EDU relay that in 2011, the percentage of high-risk drinkers at BVU was at a high of 37%, and in 2012, it had dropped to 18%. And while the percentage for high-risk drinkers decreased, the percentage of non-drinkers increased. In 2011, the percentage of non-drinkers stood at 54% but increased to 68% in 2012.
The records provided by Scully also show that when it comes to student conduct, there has been a reduction in first-year student alcohol violations, and there are also less repeats of the violation behavior.
With the decrease in high-risk alcohol consumption, other issues such as sexual assaults and acts of violence have also decreased because these issues are often associated with the consumption of too much alcohol.
This information would seem that the Alcohol EDU program is working.
“Alcohol EDU is a healthy program that helps students learn how to drink wisely,” Scully said.
Graphic by: Krystal Schulte
