By Alex Stratyner

In the wake of concern regarding this year’s alcohol-related incidents, the Joint Student-Administration Alcohol Policy Panel (JSAAPP) held a meeting on Wednesday to discuss issues relating to the alcohol policy at Haverford College.

-Hannah Jaenicke, “‘Alcohol Party’ Stresses Student Involvement”
The Bi-College News, December 16, 2008

That date isn’t wrong.

Nearly a year ago, then-JSAAPP Chair Maggie Goddard ’11, Director of Safety and Security Tom King, Mark Sweeney, the safety coordinator for Haverford Safety and Security, and Dean of Student Life Steve Watter were joined by concerned members of Haverford’s student body to discuss an increase in the number of calls being made to Haverford College security officials about intoxicated students and guests who others believed required medical attention.

Last year, the increase in incident reports didn’t seem to worry King.

“‘[Students used to call] when people were really sick or in trouble, but now calls come in when it’s a lot less serious,’” Jaenicke reported King said at the “Alcohol Party” forum.

“Throughout the meeting, King reiterated that there has been no increase in binge-drinking and that the increase in calls could be attributed to many factors, including growing trust between students and Safety and Security,” Jaenicke’s report continued.

Nearly a year later, this sentiment has changed.

As of Nov. 8, not even two months into the school year, 27 alcohol-related incidents (not including the 31 students cited for underage drinking at Lloyd Around the World on Sept. 3) have been reported at Haverford, according to records compiled by Haverford’s Department of Safety and Security. Of these 27 incidents, 18 resulted in hospitalization. The majority of these incidents involve the freshman class.

The numbers are a drastic increase from the days when “growing trust between students and Safety and Security” was the main explanation for an increase in incidents. During the entire 2008-2009 academic year, 42 alcohol-related incidents were reported to Safety and Security, with 24 of these reports resulting in hospitalization. During the 2007-2008 academic year, the numbers were even tamer — 31 reported incidents, with 20 resulting in hospitalization. And this time around, change — in behavior, and potentially in policy — is being called for.

Yet while student government representatives, the administration and concerned community members have expressed an understandable desire to see the rising rate of alcohol-related incidents come to a halt, few, if any, can pinpoint why such incidents are on the rise.

While drinking behavior and the drinking culture of a college campus are shaped by many complex and confounding variables, none of which could stand alone as The Reason That There Are More Alcohol-Related Incidents This Year, only by attempting such an analysis of these behaviors can Haverford — or any college for that matter — successfully operationalize the root of the problem. Without searching for a principal set of behaviors and social norms that have brought about the statistics reported by Safety and Security, putting an end to hospitalizations is a Sisyphean task.

Watching the statistics rise does not explain the reason they are rising. Theorizing about potential causes only results in attempts at change that attack proposed causes for dangerous behavior without actually seeking out quantitative evidence to determine if there is a causative link between the behaviors and the consequences. Changes based on inference will not suffice, and may only result in the creation of a community that feels defeated. Instead, statistical analysis must be undertaken.

With this goal in mind, The Bi-College News conducted a survey aimed at isolating trends in dangerous behaviors that might explain the increase in alcohol-related incidents. Two versions of the survey, entitled “Boozing in the Bi-Co,” were released. The first, sent to sophomores, juniors, and seniors from Haverford and Bryn Mawr, received 471 responses, 237 from Bryn Mawr (82 seniors, 65 juniors, and 90 sophomores) and 234 from Haverford (82 seniors, 75 juniors, and 77 sophomores). A second survey addressing the same issues as well as some questions specific to the freshman class, received 95 responses from Haverford and 62 from Bryn Mawr.

While the sample size of these surveys, especially for the freshman class, is small, we must remember that Haverford and Bryn Mawr are small colleges and small samples can be representative. It is our hope that the analysis of this data will provide insight into how bi-co drinking culture, specifically the culture perpetuating dangerous behavior at Haverford, has changed, if at all, and that it will serve as a basis for determining what changes must be made to combat this community dilemma.

Work Hard, Play Hard

As part of a response to the question “Do you feel that there is a need or expectation to drink at social gatherings?” a Haverford male from the Class of 2011 wrote, “More than any other college I know of, students here work hard and play hard.”

While the work hard, play hard mentality is characteristic of many college students, who seek to balance hours of studying with that quintessential “college experience,” the desire to have it all might sometimes lead to too much, too fast. When does “work hard, play hard” become “work hard, play dangerously?”

When asked how many times during an average week they consume alcohol, about one-third of the Bryn Mawr upperclassmen (including sophomores, juniors and seniors) who responded said they drank one to two times a week, and about one-in-ten reported drinking three to four times a week. At Haverford, more than half of upperclassmen said they drink one to two times per week, and more than one-in-ten reported drinking three to four times per week.

Among the freshman, of the Bryn Mawr students who responded, more than one-quarter said they drank one to two times a week. Of Haverford freshman respondents, nearly half said they drank once or twice a week, and about one-in-thirty said that they drank three to four times per week.

These numbers say little about dangerous drinking behavior, however, unless the number of drinks consumed is considered. When asked how many drinks they drink in a typical week, nearly one of ten Mawrtyrs who said they drank between one to two times during an average week reported drinking between six and ten drinks per week (an average of three to five drinks per night if the students drink twice a week), while of those who reported drinking three to four times a week, nearly one-in-six said that they drank more than 10 alcoholic drinks per week (over 3.3 drinks per night if the student drinks three nights a week and over 2.5 drinks per night if they drink 4 nights a week).

At Haverford, nearly one-quarter of upperclassmen who reported drinking one to two times a week said they drank between six and ten drinks a week, and more than one-in-eight reported drinking more than ten drinks per week. Of those who drank three to four times a week, more than half reported drinking over ten alcoholic drinks per week.

Of Bryn Mawr freshman who responded to the survey, two of the sixteen respondents who drank one or twice a week reported drinking seven to ten drinks per week, while one said they drank over 10 drinks a week. Of the Haverford freshman who reported drinking one to two times a week, more than one-in-five drank between seven and ten drinks a week, and nearly one-in-nine drank over ten drinks a week. Of the three Haverford freshmen who reported drinking three to four times, two said they drank over ten drinks per week.

According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, binge drinking “is a pattern of drinking alcohol that brings blood alcohol concentration (BAC) to .08 gram percent or above. For the typical adult, this pattern corresponds to consuming 5 or more drinks (male), or 4 or more drinks (female), in about 2 hours.” Whether or not the data collected by The Bi-College News’ survey is indicative of binge drinking cannot be proven, but based on the amount of times students drink during the week and the number of drinks they consume, it is a strong possibility.

Drink of Choice

When bi-co students are consuming alcohol, their drink of choice is hard liquor: nearly one-quarter of upperclassmen and freshman reported that they most often drink hard liquor when they are consuming alcohol.

Of those consuming hard liquor, nearly one-in-nine upperclassmen at Bryn Mawr and Haverford say that they often consume the liquor in shots.

The number is higher for freshman: over one-in-six of the 157 freshman respondents say that they often take shots of hard liquor.

The danger of drinking shots as opposed to beer, wine, or a mixed drink, lies in the misleading size of a shot, said Bryn Mawr Director of Public Safety Mike Hill.

“There is a perception that people drink shots much faster or hard liquor faster than it can metabolize, so before they know it, it’s too late,” said Hill, who noted that he is not a medical professional, in an interview. “While it’s the same amount of alcohol — one beer equals one shot equals one glass of wine — if I drink six shots in ten minutes that’s six hours worth of alcohol all at one time. What can that do to your body? I think there is some truth to the fact that if students are drinking hard liquor versus beer that has an impact on student’s safety. Most people don’t think that little tiny cup, that shot, is really going to hurt them. They figure ‘Oh it’s just a shot.’ But if you drink ten shots, or six shots, that could really put somebody in a bad place.”

For example, the hospital.

Taking shots of liquor appears to be correlated with hospitalization. Of the seven Haverford Safety and Security incident reports that specifically discuss what the student consumed, all seven say that shots of liquor were involved. One report reads, “Reporting student [said] that [the intoxicated student] had drank eight to nine shots of vodka within two hours.”

‘Want Me to Pick Something Up For You?’

Of the 27 incident reports from Haverford, 15 involve students from Haverford’s freshman class. Who is giving these underage students alcohol?

When asked if they had been provided with alcohol by a Customs team member (Customs People, Honor Code Orienteers, Peer Awareness Facilitators, Upper Class Advisors, or Ambassadors for Multicultural Awareness), Haverford freshman responded with a resounding yes not matched by Bryn Mawr respondents. Nearly six-in-ten Haverford freshman respondents reported being provided with alcohol by Customs team members.

Though the freshmen who responded also noted that they receive alcohol from upperclassmen who do not hold leadership positions, and at parties, where one female Haverford freshman respondent said liquor is “free flowing,” it is of some concern that students in advisory and leadership positions, many of which involve competitive application and intensive interview processes, are willing to and commonly provide alcohol to underage students.

Upperclassmen may even be promoting rule-breaking drinking behavior. When asked if they were provided with alcohol during Customs Week, a “dry” week on both campuses, over one-in-ten Haverford and Bryn Mawr freshman respondents said yes.

Risky Business

That 27 alcohol-related incidents have been reported since the beginning of the academic year is undeniably problematic. But what about dangerous behavior that goes unreported?

When asked if they had engaged in “risky behavior” while under the influence of alcohol, more than one-in-six freshman respondents and over one-quarter of upperclassmen respondents answered yes.

“If risky behavior can be considered risqué behavior,” one Bryn Mawr freshman wrote, “then I do that quite a lot.”

She is not alone. Twenty-seven students reported being in risky sexual situations, ranging from hook-ups to unprotected sex to being sexually assault while inebriated.

Five students reported driving while under the influence of alcohol, and one student said that they decided to get into a car with a drunk driver while the student was also inebriated.

A Dangerous Self-Image

Perhaps the most dangerous trend demonstrated by the students who responded to the survey cannot be accurately portrayed by statistics alone. No check boxes or multiple-choice questions could accurately demonstrate this trend; lists of alcohol-related incidents, no matter how long, cannot adequately assess its nature. It cannot be blamed on the party policy, upperclassmen who are willing to provide alcohol to students, or the misleading size of a shot of vodka.

It’s how we view ourselves.

When describing circumstances in which they had to seek medical attention for a friend, virtually every students’ explanations of their friends’ levels of inebriation sounded no different from the descriptions published by Safety and Security:

“My roommate had to go to the hospital and get her stomach pumped. She consumed so much alcohol that her alcohol level was .37 and she was unconscious,” wrote a Bryn Mawr freshman.

“Passed out, non-responsive,” wrote a female Haverford freshman.

“A friend was very intoxicated and mildly belligerent but not vomiting. We (my friends and I) called Safety and Security and he was not hospitalized,” described a male Haverford junior.

Yet, when describing themselves while intoxicated, the students who responded made a much greater effort to offer reasoning for their mistakes:

“I had only had about 3 shots’ worth of liquor in a mixed drink, but I was running on very little sleep and hadn’t had much to eat for dinner,” wrote a female Haverford sophomore explaining why she vomited after drinking alcohol on one occasion.

“In two instances, over-consumption (in combination with exhaustion, possible dehydration, and low quantities of food consumed throughout that day) led to vomiting, paired with blackouts in one instance,” wrote a Bryn Mawr senior.

“Drinking alcohol while on antibiotics made it more difficult for my liver to process the alcohol, thus making me drunk faster and less resistant to [alcohol’s] ill effects,” wrote one Bryn Mawr freshman.

By finding an alternative explanation for why they became sick, one which places the blame on dehydration, sleep deprivation, not eating dinner, or other, more acceptable explanations, students deny personal responsibility for their choices, a forgiveness which few students seem willing to offer their friends (though some do). Yet it is no less their responsibility to make sure that they eat dinner, drink water, and know whether they can safely consume alcohol when taking medication before consuming alcohol than it is to not drink excessively.

The trend to disengage from personal responsibility is equally pervasive among students discussing risky behavior that they have engaged in while intoxicated, as demonstrated by one male Haverford freshman who wrote “I have driven under the influence of alcohol, but only under limited effect,” in an attempt to make his decision to drive while intoxicated acceptable.

Others still appear to use humor as a defense mechanism when explaining decisions that they have made under the influence, including one male Ford.

“I’ve sustained many minor injuries and at least one minor STD while under the influence of alcohol. It was worth it,” wrote one male Haverford junior.

Student leaders and administrators have expressed the importance of watching out for one another when drinking, but they have also said that it is essential to take personal responsibility when consuming alcohol. We must view our own actions with the same clarity and objectivity as we view those of our peers. Though personal forgiveness is essential to individual well-being, allowing each of us to move on from our mistakes and to not be unnecessarily critical of ourselves, we must take responsibility for our actions if we are to make better choices in the future.

Where do we go from here?

As expected, there is no single reason that alcohol-related incidents have increased this year. On many counts, freshman and upperclassmen reported similar experiences with alcohol. Perhaps freshman, who represent the majority of hospitalizations and other alcohol-related incidents, must simply be given the time to learn from these experiences just as the upperclassmen have during their time at college. Or perhaps some variable has escaped analysis. Whatever the case, it is my hope that the information collected can serve in some way to educate us, both as individuals and as a bi-college community, as we move forward.
 

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