Wash U Joins National Initiative to Reduce Binge Drinking on Campuses

Binge drinking has been a peristent problem on college campuses across the nation. Now, Washington University has joined 32 colleges and universities in a national initiative working to bring a new approach to the old problem.

High-risk drinking affects nearly four out of 10 college students nationally, according to a Wash U news release.

The initiative is an undertaking by the National College Health Improvement Project, a joint venture by Dartmouth College and the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice.

The participating schools will use comprehensive evaluation and measurement techniques to bring a new, evidence-based approach to binge-drinking, reports the Wash U news release.

The collaborative includes several peer institutions, liberal arts colleges and large public universities. The participating teams will work with Dartmouth Institute scientists and researchers for 18 months.

The WUSTL team includes a number of administrators, as well as John Harrison York, Student Union president and a senior in Arts & Sciences, and Josh Aiken, a Student Union senator and a sophomore in Arts & Sciences.

Universities have tried numerous strategies over the past several decades to reduce binge drinking. Despite this, the rate has remained virtually unchanged. Nearly 40 percent of U.S. college students engage in binge drinking.

WUSTL’s statistics mirror the national average. 

According to the school's Assistant Vice Chancellor and Director of Student Health Services, 38.5 percent of the university’s undergraduates engage in high-risk drinking. “Our binge-drinking rates are more or less identical to peer schools,” Glass said.

With the new partnership, the university is striving to reduce the campus binge-drinking rate by 25 percent in three years.