A study of alcohol use at Tufts released in May shows that although four out of five Tufts students drink, most students think their peers drink more than they really do.
Although national drinking statistics are widely available, The Tufts University Alcohol Study was the first focused on alcohol use on this campus. The report recommended the University run a "social norms" campaign to inform students about how much other students really drink.
The study, released by the community health program, was conducted by department chair Edith Balbach, lecturer Charlene Galarneau, and students who took a year-long course devoted to the study, which began in September 1999. Galarneau said she and the students examined drinking in different situations - not just binge drinking - to characterize overall alcohol use on campus.
"In general, Tufts students are like [those at] many other campuses," Galarneau said. At Tufts, overall alcohol use falls is consistent with statistics for similar-sized schools, where drinking is neither unusually light or nor heavy. At larger universities, Galarneau said, heavier drinking often occurs more frequently.
The survey did find, however, that a significant number of the students surveyed - 15.8 percent - typically consumed six or more drinks at one time, which is characteristic of alcohol dependency.
The study compiled students' drinking habits through written surveys, group discussions, and one-on-one interviews. The researchers also focused on first-year student's perceptions of drinking.
"The first-year drinking experience in many ways is different from other drinking," Galarneau said. "When students first come to campus, they bring a lot of expectations about drinking."
But these expectations often turn out to be false, Galarneau said. The study found that freshmen and other Tufts students, like other students around the nation, overestimate the amount of drinking their peers do.
"I think to a certain extent, [students] think it's cool to drink a lot," said Steve Metzger, a senior and one of the student researchers. This makes student think that their peers drink more often than they really do, he added.
In fact, the study found that 19 percent of students do not drink alcohol at all, a statistic that surprised junior Viola Manteufel, another student researcher.
"That's a lot bigger than I had expected," she said, "and I think other students would be skeptical of it. But that's what we found."
Manteufel pointed out that students may perceive heavy alcohol use among their peers because they are more likely to remember frequent drinkers than nondrinkers. "The people who do use alcohol are so visible," she reasoned. "It's easy to find the drunk people, but it's harder to find the people who aren't drunk."
Although participation in the Greek system is high and fraternities are popular spots for freshman drinking, the study found that drinking often occurs elsewhere.
"It was... significant to validate the theory that students are drinking as often in their residence hall rooms as they are at the frats," said Armand Mickune-Santos, coordinator of the alcohol health education program.
The student and faculty researchers ended the study with eight recommendations which address student well-being.
"[The] emphasis is on how to create an environment that is safe and healthy as opposed to a punitive approach to drinking," Galarneau said.
The University's underage drinking policy was recently relaxed for students caught drinking in dorms. The new policy puts students on residential life probation, keeping them in "good standing" with the university.
Last year's policy, which Dean of Students Bruce Reitman called an "aberration," in a Daily interview earlier this month, placed students on university probation and took away good standing privileges, such as pledging fraternities and sororities.
The recommendations include a social norms campaign that would correct misperceptions of student drinking, continuing research on campus alcohol use, and implementing a campus plan to address alcohol-related concerns.
"Designing and implementing a social norms campaign to compliment the educational and the counseling services we now offer would work well this year," Santos said.
As the only alcohol health counselor on campus, Santos emphasized the need for others to become involved in campaigns on drinking awareness.
"This 'alcohol abuse drinking culture' is too significant of a problem that can only be addressed as a community effort," Santos said. "Social and non-drinkers should not have to tolerate other people's inappropriate and unwanted behaviors and attitudes."
Santos recommends that Greek students in particular lead the campaign, because they are sometimes criticized for making alcohol widely available.
"Fraternities spend a great deal of time defending and defining the great things they do for the community regarding campus life," he said. "Now would be a great time for fraternities to promote a lifestyle that has less emphasis on alcohol parties."
The study, a result of Tufts' involvement in the Boston Coalition's Task Force on Underage & Problem Drinking and the University's own Alcohol Task Force, was sent to 45 to 50 administrators, faculty, staff, and student groups.
"Now we have actual Tufts data that tells us how much Tufts drinks," Galarneau said. "It's really an at-home picture."
"We hope that everyone involved with the University will pick up on this and pick up on a discussion and some sort of plan," Galarneau said.
