Anyone who has been or is enrolled in higher education would tell you that college is far more than schoolwork and a degree.Anyone who has been or is enrolled in higher education would tell you that college is far more than schoolwork and a degree.

Drinking and the College Anyone who has been or is enrolled in higher education would tell you that college is far more than schoolwork and a degree. 

In fact, many might tell you the experience of college is more valuable than the degree itself. However, a lot of that experience is not always geared toward class assignments and internships. 

Specifically, for a good number of college students living on campus, the experience has a lot to do with partying and drug and alcohol consumption. According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, students’ participation in drinking has declined in the last 40forty years despite high-risk binge drinking remaining an active problem among young college students. 

In recent years, there has been a slight shift in how students view sobriety, and many students have made an effort to slow down alcohol consumption on college campuses. Drinking and using other substances has still been an issue that administrators have tried to solve. 

Shippensburg University students expressed many different perspectives on binge drinking and drinking in general. Many students believe drinking excessively has a negative impact on the college experience due to the fact it can cause students to lose focus and fall behind on their schoolwork. 

Others believe that drinking for social events is not necessarily a terrible thing, but it can become a problem if it turns into a habit. 

Student Dawin Sackie said, “I feel like binge drinking impacts the college experience negatively due to the fact that it’s consumed too consistently. … It makes them feel as if they need a drink just to function.” 

There has been a clear effort to get students to stop their excessive drinking as of recent years, but institutions will only make progress if they continue to push for sobriety with their students. 

In 1981, 82% of students reported drinking in the last 30 days, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s Monitoring. As of 2021, that number dropped by about 20%. 

While binge drinking has slowly decreased, students also gave perspectives as to why some students binge drink to begin with. Student Kerry Henderson Jr. said, “A lot of people binge drink in college to cope with stress and to help [them] if they’re going through mental health problems like depression.” 

Students also reflected on personal experiences where they’ve seen peers drink in the middle of their classes or even seen people get mad and use their anger as an excuse to have a drink.

Whether it is viewed as a serious problem or not, many believe binge drinking is still an issue of whichthat people need to be aware of. However, as of recent years, it has become a topic that people are more comfortable with having a conversation about. 

There are reasons pointing towards the decline of binge drinking, but continued progress will also take time.

This generation of college students isare only setting the example for the generations to come, making it very important to make smart choices and lead the next students in the right direction. 

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