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Binge drinking concerns addressed by guest speaker
Thursday October 23 2008
"I never got hurt or did anything horribly regrettable, but yeah, there were some mornings when I woke up and had to find out what I did or said the night before,” said Derrick, an Elizabethtown College student whose name has been changed to conceal his identity. He thought he was just acting like a normal college student when he went out on the weekends, despite being underage.“I didn’t think there was anything wrong with going out and partying Friday and Saturday nights,” Derrick said in regards to the extent of his partying.
Derrick later changed his mind about alcohol in general. “It was an amazing moment to realize that I could have an alcohol problem without being an alcoholic,” he said.
This moment occurred on an ordinary Thursday evening on Oct. 2, when Leffler Chapel was filled with every sports team on campus. Mike Green, collegiate consultant on drugs and alcohol, entertained the student athletes for more than an hour. Green’s presentation was lined with humor and audience participation, which helped get his point across.
Green, who has been sober for more than 30 years, began by telling his audience that he is still tempted by alcohol.
“It’s alcoholism, not alcoholwasm. It doesn’t just go away,” he emphasized.
He was able to make his audience, including Derrick, understand that they could have an alcohol problem without being an alcoholic.
“Some college kids will go out for one night to get drunk, and they end up having what I call a ‘one-night problem,’” Green explained. “No one ever taught you [college students] how to drink the right way,” he added. “One or two [drinks] enjoyed the right way can be a treat.”
Although he was much older than his audience, Green was able to establish himself on the same level as the students. “Greeny” (as he called himself) told some sidesplitting stories of his college days and the drinking problems he had. He was able to impress students with his vast knowledge of alcohol.
Green also told some sad stories that he had encountered over his 18 years as a speaker. He backed up his presentation with several chilling facts about alcohol-related injuries and deaths.
Just 18 miles away at Franklin and Marshall College, a story similar to those told by Green unfolded last week. While visiting friends at the college, 22-year-old F&M alumnus Phillip Rehders died in the early morning of Sunday, Oct. 5.
The death of Rehders, an exceptional swimmer, is still under investigation. Rehders had been drinking Saturday night, but toxicology reports from the autopsy have not yet been released.
“It should never take a death to learn how to drink the right way,” Green advised.
Elizabethtown College is doing its best to take this advice. There are many similarities between the two Lancaster County liberal arts schools; what is there to stop the same thing that happened at F&M from happening here?
According to Dean of Students Marianne Calenda, the answer is the students’ personal choices.
The college limits the amount of alcohol 21-year-old students can have and offers alternatives to drinking for all students, but Dean Calenda says that “ultimately, the responsibility falls on the student to make healthy and responsible choices.”
Dean Calenda admits that “young adults, in general, tend to experiment,” but she hopes that they “can do so sensibly.”
Sensibility is sometimes learned the hard way, but for Derrick the realization comes easily. Friday and Saturday nights might be a little different now for him and his friends.
“It’s scary to think that some of the stories could have easily been about me or a friend,” he said.
That leaves some hope that, like Derrick, the world’s young adults can learn to be responsible and wise decision-makers.
The Etownian >> News