An educational drinking culture

Last week, students were relieved to hear that a new member hospitalized for an alcohol-related incident is expected to make a full recovery. Thankful as we are, we must not allow near misses of this nature to be okay. Remembering that Duke has previously lost students due to alcohol in 2000, 2010 and 2011, no rate of student deaths — even every several years — is acceptable. Our futures are far too bright to allow unhealthy drinking to make its way into student habits, putting ourselves and our peers at risk.

It bears discussing how we can continue to improve our social culture at Duke to further limit the likelihood that Duke lives will be cut short, career paths damaged or injuries sustained as a result of alcohol. It is important to note that excessive drinking in short periods of time is as damaging as unhealthy long-term habits that students may develop.

Alcohol is a part of American culture. Duke graduates will be expected to appropriately navigate alcohol consumption in work and social situations. Learning to responsibly and safely consume alcohol, knowing one’s limits and developing strategies to establish boundaries in social settings are tools students need to acquire during their time at Duke as they transition to being legal. As long as alcohol consumption remains an American pastime, students must help each other navigate accepting and rejecting offers to drink.

Alcohol consumption becomes dangerous and is defined as binge drinking when four to five drinks are consumed within a two hour period. Drunk driving is always dangerous and resulted in a student tragically killing another student in 2012. It remains a problem at Duke, particularly for graduate students, who risk being denied professional licenses in addition to risking lives when they get behind a wheel after drinks. Students at Duke are generally watching out for one another and are understanding of those who abstain from drinking, but experience takes time to accumulate.

First-years particularly have little or no experience with alcohol, and current policies force students to drink in secrecy or find alcohol at parties off of East Campus. A journeyman mentality can develop in first-year students wherein they drink at the hospitality of others, reducing accountability to their community and making alcohol a kind of forbidden fruit. While we concede that North Carolina law is especially strict with common sources and hard liquor, students are likely to drink more safely and pick up good habits if Duke adopts more oversight that is less restrictive, like the open-door policy at Stanford and changes to how Resident Assistants deal with drinking that is neither dangerous nor disruptive.

We hope to see a return to a previous campus culture of acceptable and healthy drinking in residential and appropriate spaces on West and Central campus. On-campus drinking lets students take care of students with appropriate resources nearby, compared to something like the trek back from Shooters. A review of policies for on-campus events involving alcohol might help more campus organizations make the choice to sponsor events at the safest locations for students: right next to where they live.

Ultimately, students need the opportunity to learn the appropriate, and sometimes appropriately absent, link between social engagement and alcohol consumption. We applaud the continuing development of alcohol-free evening programing for first-year students and equally applaud the opening this semester of Devil’s Krafthouse serving a variety of craft beers in the new West Union. We hope its central placement can signal a normalization of acceptable drinking in campus spaces and that all students will leave Duke with the essential skills to navigate the cultural norms presented by alcohol in the way they see fit.