COLLEGE students drink; it's what they do. The surest way to turn a jam-packed party into a ghost town is to spread the word that the keg's kicked. Excessive drinking doesn't seem like a problem because it's what most people do for fun. Because alcohol use isn't taken too seriously or seen as anything unusual, students disagree with their schools' parental notification policies in cases of arrests for underage drinking. A student may think of such a policy as nothing more than a way for him to get in trouble with his family. As a result, students may be wholly against parents finding out about their drinking habits.
The thing that must be remembered, however, is parents aren't the enemy, alcohol abuse is. For that reason, students should grin and bear parental notification policies.
Many colleges - including the University - implemented parental notification policies after Congress amended the Higher Education Act in October 1998 to allow colleges to inform parents whenever underage students are caught violating drug or alcohol laws.
Students have a lot of complaints about such policies, primarily because the whole concept of parental notification makes people nervous. No student, understandably, wants to face the wrath of their parents after they are arrested for drinking illegally.
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There's more at stake here than angry parents, however, because parental notification policies can help students with alcohol abuse problems from slipping even further. For some students who may be unaware they have serious drinking problems, getting caught may be a blessing in disguise.
It may be hard to fathom that alcoholism can be a problem for people who aren't yet legally allowed to consume alcohol. Unfortunately, it can be. One in 10 people who drink becomes an alcoholic ("Alcohol still the source of many social problems," The Daily Northwestern, Feb. 8), which means hundreds of University students will develop problems with alcohol that begin while they are here and affect them while they are here.
Of course, no one wants to get arrested for drinking illegally, much less have her parents find out about it. No one wants to get his friends in trouble either. Loyalty actually can become a problem in cases where the friends of a student who may have alcohol poisoning are reluctant to bring him or her in for medical treatment because of the consequences he or she will face. Friends put in this position should remember, however, that above all else it is best for their friend to be healthy.
Furthermore, if the friend has a pattern of alcohol abuse, it may be good for him or her to have a wake up call in the form of upset parents. Being forced to confront a problem will not be pleasant. Still, a bit of pain now may prevent someone from having to go through the problems he surely will have if he continues his excessive drinking unchecked and becomes further immersed in the alcohol problem.
One objection to parental notification is that bringing parents into the picture means the student isn't being treated like a self-sufficient adult. But, as much as we may like to pretend we are, college students really aren't adults. We think we've cut our parental apron strings and reached instantaneous adulthood because we use big words, read big books and, in some cases, even subscribe to The Washington Post.
So we get cocky. It's easy to think we know it all and we've done it all, when the reality is this is the time when we're just beginning to make our biggest mistakes, cheery as that thought may be.
Another objection to parental notification is that the student with the problem won't learn as much as he would if he were fighting the battle alone. This, frankly, is ridiculous. The idea of making anyone fight a drinking problem alone is not only unrealistic, it's also cruel. In all likelihood, it's one of the hardest battles that a person will ever have to wage.
Giving people support when they're fighting addictions is crucial if any progress is going to be made. There's a reason support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous are so widespread: Except for the superhumanly strong-willed, people simply can't do it alone.
Parental notification policies ensure that students with alcohol problems won't be alone, and their problem will be confronted sooner rather than later. If such policies save one person from continuing down a road of chronic self-destructive drinking, they're worth the inconvenience they may cause to everyone else effected by them.
(Laura Sahramaa is a Cavalier Daily associate editor. She can be reached at lsahramaa@cavalierdaily.com.)
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