Sen. Leibell Brings Alcohol Awareness to Mercy
Kristina Dillon
Issue date: 10/23/08 Section: News
Ask an incoming freshman about what they may be most excited about in their upcoming school year and most may tell you, "the parties."
Yet few students and parents are aware that 159,000 of today's college freshmen will not make it to their sophomore year for alcohol or drug related reasons.
New York State Senator Vincent Leibell visited the Mercy College Yorktown campus on Oct. 2 to help educate college administrations from around the county on issues involving the recent concern of alcohol and drug problems on Westchester college campuses.
"Going into my child's dorm room on a Sunday morning was like entering into a war zone," said Leibell at the discussion. "There were pizza boxes, beer cans, and cups everywhere."
Leibell is a father of three with one child still attending college, thus his inspiration for the forum. He feels very strongly about this program and the need to not only educate students on the dangers of abusing alcohol, but also to help administrators and resident assistants deal with incidents.
"Alcoholics and drug addicts lie about their intake; they say less, while college students exaggerate; they claim their intake is more," according to Dr. Bill Knack, the president of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD) ,who claims that statistics of student drinking may be skewed.
As a result the "norm" of intake for college students is distorted. "It becomes more dangerous for fellow college students to keep up with their peers now," Knack explained.
The normal alcohol intake for a man 21 and over is 4-14 drinks a week, while for women it is 3-7, according to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Yet Knack says that some college students far exceed those numbers in a practice categorized as "binge drinking."
"The problem is that students are consuming that weekly allotment and more in one night," he said.
The definition of binge drinking in the United States is the consumption of five or more drinks for men and four or more drinks in a row for women between one and three hours. The most common age of binge drinkers is 13-29.
Yet few students and parents are aware that 159,000 of today's college freshmen will not make it to their sophomore year for alcohol or drug related reasons.
New York State Senator Vincent Leibell visited the Mercy College Yorktown campus on Oct. 2 to help educate college administrations from around the county on issues involving the recent concern of alcohol and drug problems on Westchester college campuses.
"Going into my child's dorm room on a Sunday morning was like entering into a war zone," said Leibell at the discussion. "There were pizza boxes, beer cans, and cups everywhere."
Leibell is a father of three with one child still attending college, thus his inspiration for the forum. He feels very strongly about this program and the need to not only educate students on the dangers of abusing alcohol, but also to help administrators and resident assistants deal with incidents.
"Alcoholics and drug addicts lie about their intake; they say less, while college students exaggerate; they claim their intake is more," according to Dr. Bill Knack, the president of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD) ,who claims that statistics of student drinking may be skewed.
As a result the "norm" of intake for college students is distorted. "It becomes more dangerous for fellow college students to keep up with their peers now," Knack explained.
The normal alcohol intake for a man 21 and over is 4-14 drinks a week, while for women it is 3-7, according to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Yet Knack says that some college students far exceed those numbers in a practice categorized as "binge drinking."
"The problem is that students are consuming that weekly allotment and more in one night," he said.
The definition of binge drinking in the United States is the consumption of five or more drinks for men and four or more drinks in a row for women between one and three hours. The most common age of binge drinkers is 13-29.
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