Drunk U

Why do most universities allow students to drink?

Perhaps it's because universities are big business. Sure they're state run or nonprofit, but many faculty and administrators make comfortable salaries that they want to hang on to in the face of competition and falling college-age population. The chance to party and get drunk is a big draw for many college-bound teens. 80% of U.S. college students drink and half are binge drinkers. Most universities need to attract those students to stay in business.

Dartmouth College, an Ivy League school in New Hampshire, is in the news these days because its binge-drinking fraternity system is drawing criticism, but most schools are not far from it. My son went to Cornell where drinking was also rampant. 

Dartmouth is famous for its boozy fraternity system. Through hazing and alcohol use, fraternities foster multi-generational loyalties that help keep the college going. Would Dartmouth even exist without alcohol? I don't know but it's at least questionable.

Universities will tell you that their students are adults. Though technically true, it's a very loose definition of the term. They will tell you that they can't enforce rules about drinking, though they seem to be willing and able to enforce rules against offensive speech for example. The fact is, they pander shamelessly to youthful impulses.

Brigham Young University, the Mormon university in Utah, is the obvious exception. It prohibits all alcohol use on religious grounds and aggressively enforces that policy. Are BYU students better educated? No. Are they more successful? No. They are, however, happier.

I've known a number of Mormons in my life and they all seemed strangely happy. It's no mystery. It's not because they wear special underwear or believe stories about the Angel Moroni. It's because they don't use drugs or alcohol, not even caffeine. As a result, their brains function normally, and a normal, unpolluted brain is the first step to finding happiness. 

The goal of higher education, though, is not happiness, but success, and alcohol use can perhaps help you to be successful. So maybe it makes sense for schools to accept it as a cornerstone of the educational experience.

Universities want you to be successful and stand ready to help you on your way. If you want to be happy, though, you're on your own. Fortunately, you don't need a degree to find happiness because there's only one thing you really need to learn:

Don't use alcohol.

Alcohol Concern, Alcohol Justice

An organization called Alcohol Concern has campaigned in England for over 25 years against the harm caused by alcohol use.

Their stated goal is to create a new conversation about alcohol and change what they call the "alcohol culture" in the U.K. They don't advocate ending alcohol use, but I'm sure they're just being coy. They have perhaps concluded that they will do more good by advocating for restraint, but I think they're wrong. Saying that limited drinking is OK does no good because most drinkers think they're drinking "sensibly" already. If there is such a thing as "sensible" drinking, no one actually practices it.

AC may be moving in the right direction though. This year they promoted "Dry January", signing up drinkers to agree to live alcohol-free for a month. They got good media coverage, described on their website:

During the campaign, Alcohol Concern persuaded Daily Telegraph political commentator Peter Oborne to take part and write about his experiences in the paper. He also took part in media interviews on Sky, BBC 5 Live, BBC Radio 2 and on Newsnight.

They didn't ask people to "drink responsibly" for a month. They asked them to stop. Contrast that with the U.S. where there is zero public conversation about alcohol use. Here it's effectively a taboo subject.

Formerly known as the Marin Institute, the group Alcohol Justice is the only organization in the U.S. that actively works to counter the promotion of alcohol use in America. Their focus is on the alcohol industry, campaigning against claims of "healthy" alcoholic beverages for example.

A recent medical study showed that senior citizens in Greece suffered from less depression if they drank two ounces of wine with dinner. Well, maybe, but what do you want to bet that this news article was planted by alcohol industry publicists? And who drinks two ounces of wine? There's a ton of research that alcohol use at the levels practised by most Americans causes depression. It's not a cure for anything.

In the U.S., almost no one talks about the effects of alcohol use. So I'll say it again. Don't drink. It's making you unhappy.