As local college officials face an increase in student drinking, researchers convene at Temple to find a solution.

Valentine's Day 1998, Pennsylvania State University: Leaving a bar, a 21-year-old Penn State student, Joseph Bettinger, falls backwards onto the pavement and suffers a fatal skull fracture. His blood alcohol content is 2.4 percent. While the university's public security office concludes that the death was a "freak accident," the student newspaper The Collegian notes that in February 1997 two intoxicated students fell from apartment windows: one died after falling six floors; the other suffered head injuries.

Valentine's Day 1998, Haverford College: Two officers from the college's office of public safety and security run into a crowded party after someone calls seeking help for an intoxicated friend. The student is transported back to her dorm from the party and does not need medical attention.

Two incidents: one tragic and one fortunately not as serious. But they're both symptomatic of a larger problem: student drinking is reaching crisis proportions.

At Haverford, 10 out of 1,200 undergraduate students suffered alcohol poisonings last fall semester. Seven were close enough to death to be rushed to the hospital.

At the University of Pennsylvania last fall, there were 15 alcohol poisonings out of an undergraduate student population of 11,500. At Villanova this spring, six students have been transported to the hospital who were severely ill after binge drinking.

According to a recent Harvard study, 44 percent of college students binge drink, and 19 percent of those students surveyed had drunk excessive amounts during the past two weeks. St. Joseph's University Associate Dean George Dowdall, an investigator in the study, defines binge drinking as four or more drinks for a woman, or five or more drinks for a man taken at any one time.

The essential questions remain: Why do students binge drink? And how does a college remedy the problem?

This Friday, April 17, a number of top researchers will try to answer those questions during a conference at Temple University, being held in conjunction with the 10th anniversary of Temple's D.A.R.E. (Drug and Alcohol Referral Education) program. Speakers include Dowdall; Michael Haines of Northern Illinois University, who has created successful alcohol awareness programs based on student input; and West Perkins of Hobart and William Smith colleges, who's known for his landmark research on misconceptions about alcohol. Lori Vargo, assistant coordinator of D.A.R.E., hopes the conference will create a greater awareness of student drinking problems and provide an opportunity for an open forum.

Andy Ray, a sophomore at Haverford College, doesn't really know why he drank so much that he needed medical attention last semester. He believes that most students who suffer alcohol poisoning are inexperienced drinkers, although he's had plenty of experience himself. "That night I forgot the rules," he says.

Kate Locke, a student at Bryn Mawr College, stopped drinking when it started to affect her grades while in high school. "A lot of students here come from a sheltered background and don't know how to drink, or how to deal with stress," she says.

Bryn Mawr alcohol and drug counselor Lucy Darlington sees no easy solution to student alcohol abuse, but offers an explanation. "The [college-aged] generation is really scared. They're leaving college with huge debts and have no idea of what they want to do after graduation.… People binge drink to forget how hard it all is."

She believes that the 21-or-over drinking age is also partly to blame. "It's puritanical," she says. "We should be able to educate people about drinking legally."

Swarthmore Dean Ted Goundi agrees. "The drinking age works against colleges because it makes it more difficult to educate," he says. Institutions use up their resources prosecuting underage drinkers rather than teaching students how to drink responsibly. But, Dowdall points out, the 21-or-over drinking age has decreased the number of alcohol-related automobile accidents.

In reaction to the dramatic increase in alcohol poisonings since 1996, Haverford College administrators called a campus meeting in January.

"These numbers are not inflated. These numbers are not good," said Haverford activities council head Zack First at the tension-filled meeting.

In the fall, said Haverford Dean Steve Waters, one Haverford student was rushed to the hospital and had a blood alcohol level of about .4 percent—equal to the blood-alcohol level of MIT student Scott Krueger, who fell into a coma last fall after binge drinking at a frat party. Krueger died three days later. (The Haverford student recovered after several days.)

Haverford President Tom Tritton stressed that the college is not in crisis. Rather, he said, "the large number of students, faculty and administration concerned testifies to the importance of the drinking problem." He listed education, student leadership and alternative entertainment programming as three areas of focus in the college's strategy to help solve the alcohol problem.

Though neighboring Bryn Mawr College has teamed up with Haverford to curb binge drinking, Sherry Butler, a member of Bryn Mawr's alcohol overview committee, believes that alcohol abuse at Haverford, which is co-ed, is at a "different level" than at Bryn Mawr, an all-women's college.

The Harvard study, conducted by Dowdall and Harvard's Dr. Henry Wechler, supports Butler's belief. The researchers found that "students from women's colleges binge drink less frequently, they experience less effects of others' drinking, and are less likely to drink and drive."

In Butler's opinion, women at co-ed colleges may feel more pressure to drink in order to socialize with men.

In addition, Bryn Mawr maintains a relatively strict party policy when compared with Haverford, Swarthmore and the University of Pennsylvania. If students want to host a party with more than 25 guests, they must first submit forms to the college's housekeeping and public safety departments, and to a student dorm representative.

Still, excessive drinking at private parties - held prior to alcohol-free university-sponsored events—tends to be common. Pre-party drinking led to two alcohol poisonings at Bryn Mawr last semester.

Villanova University, just down the road from Bryn Mawr, is vigilant in its "reinforcement" of the alcohol policy, says Tom DeMarco, assistant to the dean of students in judicial affairs. The policy is the same as the state law: If you are under 21, you are not permitted to drink. But DeMarco admits that problems such as vandalism and hospitalizations related to alcohol have occurred on and off campus with Villanova students.

Binge drinking appears to be less of a problem at Swarthmore College, considering the low number of alcohol poisonings reported by school officials. Last semester, two extremely intoxicated students were brought to the health center; neither was brought to the hospital. "This is great from our perspective," said Dean Ted Goundi. The relative isolation of the campus may play a part, he says. Since they are not close to the bars on the Main Line, students from Swarthmore College do not have as many drinking options, he explains. But, Goundi says, "[Student drinking] is certainly a concern. A great deal of misbehavior is alcohol-related."

The University of Pennsylvania appears no less concerned. Last fall, after a series of hospitalizations and assaults related to excessive drinking, university President Judith Rodin met with students to get an evaluation on student alcohol abuse. Kathleen Ward-Gras, the alcohol and drug education coordinator, is currently conducting the evaluation.

But Ward-Gras could not comment on whether the fall '97 incidents represented a serious drinking problem at the university. Research on student drinking has not been conducted since 1993, when Penn was given a $107,000 two-year grant from the Department of Education.

However, Penn's student health services has three divisions devoted to alcohol problems, and the university also works with fraternities and sororities to prevent problems from occurring. In 1992, Theta Xi lost its house on Locust Walk because of hazing—an incident, according to Tom Carroll of university fraternity and sorority relations, which may have involved binge drinking.

State and federal efforts to combat student drinking are more concentrated on enforcing the drinking age than on stemming abuse. Last October the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration awarded a $2.4 million grant to the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB) and seven other organizations for innovative projects intended to help reduce alcohol-related fatalities or injuries. The PLCB, together with CommStar, a Minnesota electronics company, are promoting a device that can read the magnetic strip on the back of Pennsylvania driver's licenses. A license is coded to show whether the holder of the license is under the age of 21. The PLCB is encouraging bars to purchase the device, which would facilitate the process of checking IDs.

Lower Merion Police reinforce the underage drinking law on and off Haverford, Bryn Mawr and Villanova campuses. Last fall, at Haverford, they arrested several students at two different parties on the same night. More recently, in February, their attention was directed toward bars on Lancaster Avenue frequented by Villanova and Bryn Mawr students. Six students were arrested during the first weekend of February. This incident was not part of a crackdown, says officer Bill Bolgley. He maintains that the police will monitor bars for underage drinkers when time permits.

Some Haverford students disagree with the officer. They recently formed a "party host committee" to address what they see as an increasing amount of police interference in their parties. With this committee, the students want to keep parties alive on campus while abiding by Pennsylvania's alcohol laws.