Picture this: You've been working hard all week on a group project for your hardest class. You finally finish and feel confident that you'll get a good grade. A group member suggests hitting the bars for a few celebratory drinks. You gladly accept and have four or five drinks before heading home. Guess what? You're a binge drinker.
According to a study released by the Harvard School of Public Health, 66 percent of UW-Madison students are classified as binge drinkers 'defined as four drinks in a night for females and five for males. However, if you go out only rarely and stay sober the rest of the time, this should hardly be considered binge drinking. Unfortunately, the Harvard study doesn't take into account when students drink, how often or more importantly, their actions when drunk. Nor does it mention that most students who drink a lot usually have tolerances higher than four or five drinks.
On the spectrum of amount of alcohol use, most students would probably fall somewhere in the middle, with few students on either extreme. By using the term \binge drinking,"" the study connotes alcohol abuse by students. While UW-Madison does have a high rate of alcohol consumption, and most likely deserves its reputation as a party school, the campus is not crawling with raging alcoholics.
UW-Madison junior Carrie Bock agrees: ""Wisconsin has an atmosphere of work hard, play hard. If you work hard during the week, you deserve to enjoy the social activities on the weekend. Just because you go out once or twice a weekend, you still have time to get your stuff done.""
Sentiments like this convey the feeling around campus that so-called binge drinking should not be considered a problem unless it interferes with students' schoolwork, their jobs or interpersonal relationships. Most students are perfectly capable of consuming their alcohol responsibly and shouldn't be given the negative reputation that comes with being labeled a ""binge drinker"".
""By this study, I am a binge drinker, whereas normally, I wouldn't think of myself as one,"" Bock said.
UW-Madison students usually have a relatively open attitude about drinking, with most taking the attitude that the real issue is not preventing students from drinking, but instead keeping them safe when they drink. As long as you're responsible, don't hurt anyone and only mildly embarrass yourself, we shouldn't have too big of a problem.
This university, as well as the state of Wisconsin in general, has a social climate in which alcohol use is deeply ingrained. This affects alcohol use by students in ways that cannot be measured quantitatively, even by Harvard.
One of the reasons UW-Madison was selected for the study in the first place was because it was identified as having such a large problem to begin with, yet its numbers are still compared to those of other schools.
Studies like this one often fuel the notion that UW-Madison is a party school, but what people need to remember is that this school is so much more, and has so many more things to offer. Most students only drink occasionally, and usually only use alcohol to enhance an already good social situation. Unfortunately, this study misses that and our school's reputation suffers as a result.
Finally, the point the folks at Harvard missed completely is that this is college. Many people have said this is supposed to be the time of your life. So live it up, but please try to be responsible.
