Cracking down on binge drinking at Stonehill

By Kate Schiffman

Stonehill officials say they are cracking down on binge drinking on campus.

“Stonehill isn’t trying to eliminate alcohol, we just want to help students make good choices and drink responsibly,” Pauline Dobrowski, associate vice president for student affairs at Stonehill, said.

Binge drinking is a problem at most colleges but especially at Stonehill because of its Catholic affiliation, predominantly white student body and its northeastern location, Dobrowski said.

Maria Kavanaugh, director of the counseling and testing center at Stonehill, said she thinks the largest percentage of Catholic colleges are in the northeast so it appears as if their high binge drinking rates are related to their Catholic affiliation.

 “Correlation doesn’t mean causation,” Kavanaugh said.

There are also high binge drinking rates at colleges where there is “Greek life” –– sororities and fraternities and prominent athletic teams, according to the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. The institute reports there is less binge drinking at colleges that are two-year institutions, commuter schools and previously Black.

At the start of their freshman year, 34 percent of students binge drink, compared with 20 percent nationally, according to the Cooperative Institutional Research Program survey, part of the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA and the Core survey, produced by the Core Institute at Southern Illinois University. At Stonehill, this increases to 54 percent by the end of the students’ freshman year. Across all four years at Stonehill, 65 percent of students participate in binge drinking, compared with the national average of 47 percent.

“Historically, Stonehill has had higher binge-drinking rates relative to peer institutions,” Dobrowski said. “High-binge-drinking schools tend to attract high numbers of binge-drinkers.”

Students are surprised to discover Stonehill’s rates are so high, Dobrowski said.

 “Ninety percent of Stonehill students think there is less drinking or the same amount of drinking at other colleges,” Dobrowski said.

Nationally, college students overall are drinking even more. According to a new study done by the Centers for Disease Control, college-age drinkers average nine drinks when they binge drink. Binge drinking typically refers to having four or five drinks per sitting.  

Dobrowski said, however, this year’s freshman class has a lower rate of binge drinking than years past, and there is a higher rate of wellness housing.

According to an online survey conducted this fall by Jessica Greene, health and wellness coordinator at Stonehill, 32 percent of students said they have one drink or less in a typical week.

Beth Devonshire, director of community standards at Stonehill, said about 18 percent of students who drink get in trouble.

Dobrowski said because of Stonehill’s small size, it is easier for departments and divisions to work together. 

“We have to recognize it is a big problem,” Peter Carnes, chief of police at Stonehill, said of binge drinking.

But things are improving.  “Three years ago we’d transport about a dozen at mixers. Now there’s usually only one or two. It’s a good sign,” Carnes said.

Emily Schumacher, sophomore, said peer pressure hasn’t been a “huge problem” for her.

 “This is a community that is non-judgmental. There’s some social pressure to drink but it’s not as bad as at other schools,” Schumacher said.

Kevin O’Connell, manager of Shovelshop Spirits, in Easton, Mass., said his business is determined not to sell to anyone who may be buying for someone underage.

“If we see a group of underage people waiting in the parking lot, we don’t sell,” O’Connell said.

Carnes said across the country, 25 percent of students have experienced academic problems due to alcohol abuse. Nationally there are about 600,000 unintentional drinking-related injuries per year, and 97,000 have to do with sexual assault and/or date rape, he said.

If students cut back by one drink, it would drop their potential damage to themselves and to others by 60 percent, according to a study done by Bentley University.

Peter Pigulski, senior at Stonehill and an Emergency Medical Technician in Boston, said many students don’t realize the risks of becoming highly intoxicated.

“From my experience working as an EMT in Boston, a lot don’t know that if they go to sleep while intoxicated they can go into respiratory arrest,” Pigulski said.

 “There are always a large number of transports to hospitals to get stomachs pumped to lower blood-alcohol levels,” Pigulski said. “On a typical Saturday night in Boston, there are usually about four to six students who need medical attention.” 

But it is a difficult problem to address, he admitted.

 “Stonehill’s policies have excellent intention but in reality it’s a campus and it’s going to happen,” Pigulski said.

Maura Kelly, senior, said it can be difficult to regulate drinking. 

“They try but it’s hard,” Kelly said. “Students will find a way to do it if they want to.”

Kelly said binge drinking is a typical problem at colleges. “No matter where you go there will be drinking,” Kelly said.

Devonshire said education is important. “Students say, ‘Well, it’s just colleges in general with this problem.’ Well, no, it’s not,” Devonshire said.

Carnes said Stonehill binge drinking is not pretty. “At the beginning of the year there was a lady outside in the bushes lying in a pile of vomit,” he said.

Making Stonehill a dry campus won’t stop drinking, Dobrowski and Devonshire said. 

 “Brigham Young is a dry campus, and they have problems with it too,” Devonshire said. “Once you leave college you are faced with these kinds of choices, so learning how to make them is part of the college experience,” she said.

More worrisome are cases of drunk driving.  “Two students were arrested for drunk driving after they were stopped for speeding significantly,” Carnes said. “The driver was well over .08.”

Carnes said 2.1 million students across the country have driven drunk in the past year.

Maureen Coakley, police dispatcher at Clark University, in Worcester, Mass., said there are fewer binge-drinking problems at Clark than at most schools.

“We’re a small school, so we don’t get a lot of calls,” Coakley said.

She said about 60 percent of students at Clark take part in drinking, and only about 15 percent get in trouble for it. “There’s no warning here. Your first strike is your last,” Coakley said.

Alyssa Tsiros, freshman at WPI, in Worcester, Mass., said there is less drinking at WPI compared to at Clark and other nearby colleges because they have seven-week terms instead of semesters. “Every week is critical for good grades so a lot of students here restrict their drinking to the weekends,” Tsiros said.

Tsiros estimated about one third of WPI students drink to some extent. She said, based on hearsay, drinking at fraternities used to be a problem but now stricter rules are in effect.    

Allison Gill, assistant dean of campus life at Merrimack College, in North Andover, Mass., said Merrimack has a drinking culture but it is not much different from other colleges in the area.

 “Having worked at both Stonehill and Merrimack, I believe the amount of drinking to be comparable,” Gill said. 

Dobrowski said Stonehill is trying to stop binge drinking. The SGA hosts weekend activities beginning at 9 p.m. to prevent early-night drinking, and there are courses and committees to prevent drinking on campus, she said.

When students get in trouble for drinking on campus, each case is reviewed individually, Dobrowski said. Sometimes the BASICS program, which incorporates motivational, interviewing techniques to enlighten students, is used, community service is required, parents are notified or there are weekend restrictions.