The quote came from a study taken during finals week at a college. “The fact that the drop in performance was largest for the highest-performing students, the researchers wrote,” “suggests that the negative consequences of alcohol consumption are not limited to a small fraction of users or even to those who might naturally struggle with academics.”( Daily Princetonian Staff) This is proving that alcohol will negatively affect academic performance in everyone. It is not limited to lower performing students. “Both anecdotal and scientific evidence suggest that student drinking is tied to poor academic outcomes such as missing class, getting behind in school work, and receiving low grades.” (Dowdall 50) Not all students go to college to party. College is an investment in someone’s future.
Every year in the United States, countless college students acquire underage drinking citations and are eventually charged with underage drinking. These charges are a black spot on the permanent record of said students and greatly affect their ability to get a job after they graduate. The fact that the number of students charged with underage drinking do not change from year to year clearly indicates that students who are not of legal age are going to continue to consume alcohol regardless of the law. That being said, why haven’t we considered lowering the drinking age to eighteen? I believe that this reason and many other reasons should steer us as a country to consider finally lowering the legal age of consumption of alcohol.
The Secret Weapon: Effects of Sleep Deprivation in Students Around a college campus, it is common to hear students talk of having to “pull an all-nighter” in order to study for a test or write a paper. Little do many students know, however, sleep is the secret for success and is highly necessary. According to a recent survey by the National Sleep Foundation, sixty-three percent of college students do not get enough sleep. Sleep deprivation has become a huge problem among many college campuses, although many do not address it as a problem. Rather, they focus on alcohol abuse and what they see as larger issues.
The people that binge drink the most have more severe problems. These people are more likely, than people who do not drink excessively, to miss class, get behind in their homework or class assignments, involve themselves with sexual activity, not using protection during sexual activity, getting caught by campus security, or maybe even wounded, or seriously injured. “Such heavy alcohol use among American college students has received considerable attention because of high alcohol-related morbidity and mortality is widely considered a public health concern with serious immediate and long-term consequences” (Saylor, 2011). Many college campuses have considered taking serious actions to control the behavior of college students that are binge drinking. Administrators on college campuses have establish a zero tolerance policy for alcohol so that the campus is a dry campus.
With that being said alcohol and drug addiction also takes a toll on wallets and families. Even though alcohol is only purchased by those over the age of 21, but according to the National Center on addiction and substance abuse, almost 80% of high school students have tried alcohol. Alcohol is a dependent, which means it slows the function of the central nervous system. Alcohol actually blocks some of the messages trying to get to the brain. This alters a person’s perceptions, emotions, movement, vision and hearing.
“Health centers can systematically screen all students that come in to see if they are at risk for alcohol misuse or abuse. If students meet the criteria, the students could then be referred to evidence-based interventions or treatment programs.” So it seems that a lack of communication, or perhaps adequate policy, could be part of the problem. If campus police are unaware of the benefits of sending a student to a health screening instead of a issuing a fine, then the problem will continue to grow. And this isn't only for alcohol abuse, but other drugs as well. According to a study from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA), students said they drank or used drugs to relax, reduce stress or forget about problems.
Their solution is wrong, as laws will still be broken and people 20 years, 364 days and younger will continue to consume alcohol. The answer to the problem of underage drinking is not to add more restrictions. Rather, it is simple: get rid of the "underage" part. A study printed in the Journal of Alcohol and Drug Education has found that the lower drinking age has not really posed a problem for underage drinkers (96). This study also found that only 1.5% of their sample (6 students) agreed that the availability of alcohol was presenting a problem for them and their drinking habits (College Health Survey 96).
The study was presented this week at the annual meeting of the Association for Psychological Science in Boston. Compared with college students of the late 1970s, current students are less likely to agree with statements such as “I sometimes try to understand my friends better by imagining how things look from their perspective,” and “I often have tender, concerned feelings for people less fortunate than I.” “Many people see the current group of college students- sometimes called “Generation Me” as one of the most self-centered, narcissistic, competitive, confident and individualistic in recent history,” said Konrath, who is also affiliated with the University of Rochester Department of Psychiary. Konrath’s colleague and graduate student, Edward O’Brien added, “It’s not surprising that this growing emphasis on the self is accompanied by a continuing devaluation of others.” Other recent studies have shown mixed results on the character of today’s youth. For instance, one study of more than 450,000 high school seniors showed today’s youth no more self-centered than their parents were at their age. Even so, Konrath and O’Brien suggest several reasons for the lower empathy they found, including the ever-increasing exposure to media.
If drugs become more available, acceptable and cheap, they will draw in greater numbers of vulnerable youth. And because of marketing tactics of drug promoters and the major decline in drug use in the 1990s (due in great part to antidrug, education and awareness campaigns), there is a growing perception among young people today that drugs are harmless. A decade ago, for example, 79 percent of 12th graders thought regular marijuana use was harmful; only 58 percent do so today. Because peer pressure is such a factor in inducing kids to experiment with drugs, the way kids perceive the risks of drug use is critical. Legalizing smoked marijuana, giving it the government’s stamp of approval, sends the message to kids that drug use is not only harmless, but normal.
Jonathon Nangle Professor Pekarthy Intro to Sociology April 15, 2010 Alcoholism in America’s Colleges Alcohol is a drug that is used frequently for recreational purposes across the United States of America. Alcohol use is so common and so natural to Americans that it is not seen as harmful and we are often unaware of its long term effects and addictive qualities. Since people in the United States do not usually think about the harmful effects of alcohol, more than six percent of Americans will eventually develop a disease called Alcohol Dependency Syndrome, also known as Alcoholism (Kimmel). Alcoholism is a very serious disease that frequently begins affecting young adults while they are in college; and when people begin developing this