This past September, eight Virginia Commonwealth University students were charged with hazing in a fraternity pledge’s death from alcohol poisoning after a party earlier this year. The eight men arrested range in age from 19 to 22 and all were charged with unlawful hazing of a student, 19-year-old Adam Oakes. Four were also charged with buying and giving alcohol to a minor. Unfortunately, deaths on campuses attributed to alcohol poisoning are not all that uncommon. According to data compiled by Hank Nuwer, a journalism professor at Franklin College, more than 200 university students have died from hazing-related accidents in the United States since 1838 — 40 in the past decade alone. While some die from drowning or falling, most often the cause of death is alcohol poisoning. He noted that “Harmful drinking by university students is a problem for most, if not every university.” Binge drinking by university students is not unique to Canada or the U.S. Other countries report problems with high rates of university drinking that are on par with those in North America.
What is different in the U.S. is that binge drinking became part of a fraternity hazing ritual. An advantage that Canadian universities have over their U.S. counterparts is the absence of a strong fraternity and sorority culture, which can contribute to heavy drinking. American universities have generally responded to recent hazing accidents by suspending recruiting by fraternities and sororities, cancelling social events and banning hard liquor and kegs of beer at parties.
A 19-year-old Acadia University student died in Nova Scotia in September 2011 during orientation week, after consuming a large amount of alcohol. An excellent report by the Nova Scotia Department of Health and Wellness was subsequently published in the spring of 2012. The report noted that: “The university environment has a significant role in shaping student behaviors, and as such, the campus context needs to be altered so that it does not support a heavy drinking culture.” The report, “Reducing Alcohol Harms among University Students,” is available online at *Generic Strang Report (novascotia.ca).
Unfortunately, binge drinking came to be seen as a rite of passage among many students. Each year, along with the start of classes, there are the inevitable pub crawls, keg parties and excessive drinking that often accompany frosh week events. Such gatherings can lead to drunken behavior, violence, sexual assaults and property destruction. Such incidents were unfortunately observed this fall in Ontario at Windsor University, Ottawa University and Queen’s University in Kingston. Some believe that having lockdowns due the COVID-19 may have contributed to the higher than usual violent behavior and drunkenness among students. As a result, more universities are cracking down on these behaviors and have been putting policies in place to discourage binge drinking.
Deaths due to alcohol poisoning are not just a fraternity and sorority problem. According to one estimate, almost 90 percent of Canadian university students drink alcohol, while 32 percent reported drinking heavily at least once a month. U.S. research shows that universities with the highest drinking rates tend to be in communities with high drinking rates. As the above noted report states, focusing on the individual drinker in a university context has a limited impact because the actual drinking environment on campus supports, and in some cases promotes, heavy drinking. For this reason, universities have to do a better job at controlling their campus environments, especially where pubs are serving alcohol on campus. Programs which provide public education and help screen individual students for potential alcohol abuse must be put in place. Policies must prevent the promotion of binge drinking by students and others on and off campus, accompanied by stiff penalties for the violation of such policies — including the expulsion of culpable students or staff. Much more needs to be done to prevent the needless and tragic deaths of our youth due to alcohol abuses.
FROLITICKS 
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