Four years ago, Henry Wechsler's study of binge drinking by college students was a wake-up call. Wechsler, a lecturer in the Department of Health and Social Behavior, showed that binge drinking was widespread and had serious consequences for the binger as well as others on campus. His findings, along with several drinking-related deaths across the country, made it impossible (especially for college administrators) to view heavy drinking by college students as a fringe problem or party-hearty, Animal House-type fun.

Wechsler released the results of a follow-up study in September which found that there had been little change in the binge drinking rates from four years ago. In 1997, 42.7 percent of the 14,521 students that Wechsler surveyed fit the binge drinker definition; in 1993, 44.1 percent of the 15,103 students surveyed fit the bill. Fraternities and sororities remain the hot spots for binge drinking: in both surveys, Wechsler found that four out of five Greek system members were binge drinkers.

"A lot of attention was placed on this problem by our first survey. It generated a lot of discussion and some early stirrings of action," says Wechsler, director of College Alcohol Studies at the School. "Maybe it is still too early for change to occur, but I am still disappointed by the results."

Yet exactly what binge drinking means seems to be very much in the eye of the beholder. Wechsler defines binge drinking as having five drinks in a row for men and four in a row for women. John, a senior at Boston College and a marketing major, said in an interview with the Review that he doesn't consider himself a binge drinker, even though he will have at least six beers at that "one big party that you go to every weekend." He said, "People who drink four or five drinks might not be that drunk. A lot of people can handle way more than that." Wechsler says, however, that the four-to-five drink measure of binge drinking accurately predicts problems with alcohol: "Students who drink that way, particularly those who do it more than once a week, are much more likely to have drinking-related problems."

Somewhat at odds with the flat binge-drinking rate and increases in drunkenness and problems among drinkers is a slight upturn in the abstinence rate. Wechsler thinks that might be because campus interventions--alcohol-free events and discussion groups on the dangers of binge drinking--may work best on students who are already light drinkers.

Another survey is scheduled for 1999. Wechsler also has plans, as yet unfunded, to survey community residents about the second-hand effects of college student drinking on neighborhoods near campuses. In the meantime, Wechsler says college officials need to take a hard line, especially with fraternities: "Shape up-or we cut our ties to you. Also, they should not shelter them from action by local police."

Appearing at a September 10 press conference to announce the results of the study on binge drinking were lead author Henry Wechsler (left); Daniel Meade (center), a senior at Georgetown University who described his own binge-drinking experiences; and Lindsay Hayes (right), a student government activist on alcohol issues at Boston College until her graduation last May.

- Richard Hoffman