College President Jim Yong Kim will pursue a nationwide initiative to reduce binge drinking, he said in an interview on New Hampshire Public Radio on Jan. 13. Kim said the new effort will involve leaders at other college and universities, as well as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Rather than focus on eliminating drinking among students an issue Kim described as "an epidemic across the country" participants will work to remove barriers that prevent students from seeking help, Kim told NHPR on a program called "The Exchange."
Citing the case of Matthew Sunshine, a sophomore at Northwestern University who died in 2008 after consuming 17 vodka shots over the course of an hour, Kim emphasized the need "to teach young people about the dangers of excessive drinking."
"I think the temptation is to try to put a lid on talk about binge drinking and sexual assault," Kim said in an interview with WCAX News. "I'm actually taking exactly the opposite approach."
Justin Anderson, director of media relations for the College, declined to comment regarding Kim's new initiative.
Collaboration between universities, the CDC and the department of health and human services would represent a novel approach to understanding how to address student drinking and related problems, Toben Nelson, a professor at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
Nelson coauthored a 2010 study evaluating the extent to which colleges and universities had implemented recommendations made by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in 2002. The suggestions which have not been executed at most schools include intervention for at-risk students, imposing limits on liquor license availability and promoting alcohol education, according to Nelson.
"From what I understand, what [Kim] is proposing to do is to use the [Institute for Healthcare Improvement] breakthrough collaborative model, which has been used for health care improvement very successfully in a lot of different settings," Nelson said.
This collaborative strategy, which brings together college officials and outside experts, is more scientific and ensures more accountability than previous attempts to address student drinking, Nelson said.
"What we found from our research and from studying this issue for a long time is that when there is high-level authorization of these kinds of initiatives from the president, trustees things actually happen," he said.
If poorly implemented, the approach promoted by Kim may distance the problems of alcohol abuse and sexual assault from the individuals affected directly, according to Bill Sjogren '67, who volunteers for College programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous. Administrators should instead promote communication among students facing alcohol abuse, in an environment that is anonymous and free from judgment, he said.
"You get a lot of adults with committees and writing papers and taking polls and coming out with reports who really don't get down on the ground and get their hands dirty, so to speak," Sjogren said. "Until someone actually decides that someone has to get in and involved in the abuse of social situations themselves, as opposed to looking upon them from afar, I'm not optimistic about much change."
Nelson said he believes that alcohol specialists at organizations like the CDC can offer significant insight into "the science of what needs to be done," as well as how various recommendations can be implemented effectively.
"The cost of this problem, to colleges and to individuals and their families and to society, is huge," Nelson said. "It really puts students at risk, it puts communities and colleges at risk they end up paying for a tremendous cost associated with heavy drinking."
Although students should be consulted in the design and execution of alcohol reduction practices, an approach that relies mostly on student efforts is unlikely to succeed, according to Nelson.
"My experience has been, students aren't really equipped to embrace the things demonstrated by science," he said. "Students have a different perspective on things that isn't necessarily the larger social perspective, so they tend to work against the kinds of things that actually do work."
Aiming to reduce alcohol harm, College officials revised the Social Event and Management Procedures in early January, The Dartmouth previously reported. Administrators updated the College's categorization of social events, expanded the keg policy and introduced additional walkthroughs by Safety and Security officers during certain events, including "tails."
College officials met with Greek leaders on Jan. 5 to discuss these changes, The Dartmouth previously reported. Administrators are open to alternative suggestions to the policy, Kim said in a previous interview with The Dartmouth.
Behavior is unlikely to change if students do not perceive legal repercussions for drinking as real and immediate, according to Sjogren.
"I think it's very important for part of a college student's education and training for becoming an adult to realize they're not immune from the same laws that people the same age who aren't in college must abide by," he said.
Sjogren said he was concerned that a large-scale, organized effort to address drinking among college students throughout the country may ignore circumstances unique to individual campuses.
"At a place like Dartmouth there seems to be a huge peer pressure to drink excessively every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday," he said.
The prevalence of beer pong within the College culture also proliferates binge drinking among students, he said.
"To me, pong basically means drinking eight or 10 beers in an hour," Sjogren said. "If President Kim is serious about doing something about binge drinking, he needs to admit that pong equals binge drinking."
Sjogren said he questions the prevalence of alcohol abuse in fraternity basements given the great number of social and academic opportunities.
"What is it about the culture that leads to so many people spending a significant part of their time drunk and in the dark?" he asked.
