It isn’t easy to change a culture. Especially a culture that seems to think that alcohol and college students go together like gin and tonic. But that is exactly what we are attempting to do at Ithaca College. Not because I believe in Prohibition, or want to stop anyone from having "fun," or think that college students cannot be treated as responsible adults. We need to change the culture because student alcohol use and its destructive consequences --- including academic underperformance, vandalism, and abusive behavior --- are at unacceptably high levels at this institution.   At Convocation '00 President Peggy R. Williams chatted with Diane Nocerino '01, whom she invited to join the task force.      I am not naïve, and I have spent enough time around college students at a variety of institutions to know that alcohol use is seen by many as both a rite and a right of passage. But it gives little comfort, and does nothing at all to solve the problem, to just acknowledge that Ithaca College is not alone in having to deal with the issue. I was, frankly, shocked by the results of the Core Institute survey conducted in 1999. As the article on page 22 straightforwardly points out, our students consistently reported greater alcohol use and abuse than their peers at other campuses. If that is the bad news, there is also good news. The elimination of Fountain Day as a campus-wide ritual has resulted in a tremendous drop in the number of injuries and other incidents involving alcohol on the last day of classes. Consider: In 1999 approximately 100 students were seen by medical staff for problems and/or injuries related to excessive drinking on Fountain Day. Ten students were sent to the Cayuga Medical Center emergency room because their blood-alcohol levels were so elevated, while another 16 spent the night in Hammond Health Center under close observation. In addition, there were a large number of illegal parties on campus, several fights, and excessive damage in the residence halls, in various academic buildings, and to the grounds of the academic quad and other areas on campus. In 2001, the second year of moving the fountain jump to Senior Week, no students were treated at Hammond Health Center or Cayuga Medical Center for alcohol-related problems on the last day of classes. The Office of Campus Safety reported only one incident, confiscating a beer keg from a residence hall room. At the actual fountain jump, the only injury was to a student who was treated at the scene for cutting his knee. To me, one of the most heartening aspects of dealing with the alcohol issue has been the way in which students themselves are responding to the challenges. Yes, there are many who oppose any change that makes it more difficult for them to drink. In each of my four years here, however, the senior class has been instrumental in contributing to the effort to rein in Fountain Day excesses. Students played a key role on the Task Force on Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Prevention, and student participation in open forums helped us develop the policy and programmatic changes detailed in the article on page 22. I know that many alumni have been concerned about what is seen as a return to the in loco parentis notion of an earlier era, when colleges, Ithaca included, served as surrogate parents to their students and imposed innumerable restrictions on their behavior. That is not my intention. I intend to continue working with students --- and with all segments of the Ithaca College community --- so that this institution remains distinctive for the quality of its academic achievements, not for the quantity of its alcohol consumption. Photo by Cascadilla Photography
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