2008 Woodie Awards
18 is the new 21
A look at underage drinking and why UMaine students do it
Brett Sowerby
Issue date: 12/3/07 Section: Style
With all the recent press regarding underage drinking, it is important to understand why students here at the University of Maine feel a need to consume alcohol on such a regular basis.
According to the Center for Disease Control, only 61 percent of adults of legal drinking age had any alcohol last year. Compare that to the over 70 percent of underage students 18 to 20 years old that drank in that same period. Is there any other law broken by 70 percent of an age group? Venturing a guess, perhaps babies not wearing clothes in public may be over the 70 percent mark.
On a typical Friday night, students from all over campus - and off - travel about Orono looking for safe places to imbibe their liquor of choice - or availability. One underage student, a 19-year-old sophomore business major that wished to remain unidentified for the obvious possibility of legal repercussions, stated why she drinks alcohol: "It's fun."
Fun indeed, and when asked if the recent death of a UMaine student would change her law-breaking habits, the student simply shrugged her shoulders and said, "Not really." That said, while this student explained that she drinks on a regular basis - almost every weekend - she has never blacked out, defined by Urban dictionary as being so drunk a person wakes up the next morning with temporary amnesia of the night's activities. She also didn't feel she drinks to excess, especially not enough to warrant a change in habits. "I have friends that drink a lot more than me," she added.
Sean Hurley, a first-year student, explained why he abstains from drinking. "It just seems like [students] always get in trouble when they're drunk." He added that even though he's at UMaine for an education, he still has fun, without alcohol.
Doing a quick search on Facebook, "drinking" yielded more results for profile hits in the Maine network than was worth keeping track of. Most of these results were from students' "Interests," "Activities" and "About Me" sections from their profiles. A search for the word "drunk" yielded similar results. College students enjoy alcohol so much they sometimes list it in all three categories - and occasionally include an action shot of a night's drinking as their profile photo. That hardly yells "moderation."
According to the Center for Disease Control, only 61 percent of adults of legal drinking age had any alcohol last year. Compare that to the over 70 percent of underage students 18 to 20 years old that drank in that same period. Is there any other law broken by 70 percent of an age group? Venturing a guess, perhaps babies not wearing clothes in public may be over the 70 percent mark.
On a typical Friday night, students from all over campus - and off - travel about Orono looking for safe places to imbibe their liquor of choice - or availability. One underage student, a 19-year-old sophomore business major that wished to remain unidentified for the obvious possibility of legal repercussions, stated why she drinks alcohol: "It's fun."
Fun indeed, and when asked if the recent death of a UMaine student would change her law-breaking habits, the student simply shrugged her shoulders and said, "Not really." That said, while this student explained that she drinks on a regular basis - almost every weekend - she has never blacked out, defined by Urban dictionary as being so drunk a person wakes up the next morning with temporary amnesia of the night's activities. She also didn't feel she drinks to excess, especially not enough to warrant a change in habits. "I have friends that drink a lot more than me," she added.
Sean Hurley, a first-year student, explained why he abstains from drinking. "It just seems like [students] always get in trouble when they're drunk." He added that even though he's at UMaine for an education, he still has fun, without alcohol.
Doing a quick search on Facebook, "drinking" yielded more results for profile hits in the Maine network than was worth keeping track of. Most of these results were from students' "Interests," "Activities" and "About Me" sections from their profiles. A search for the word "drunk" yielded similar results. College students enjoy alcohol so much they sometimes list it in all three categories - and occasionally include an action shot of a night's drinking as their profile photo. That hardly yells "moderation."
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 2
Zachary Bell
posted 12/04/07 @ 4:06 PM EST
I guess I understand the basic premise of this article but I was left with more questions than answers when I was finished reading. I am not a journalist but it seemed especially confusing to end the piece by bringing up an entirely different subjec. (Continued…)
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