Nearly Half of Harvard Students Binge Drink

Forty-six percent of Harvard students "binge drink"--one point higher than the national average--but the frequency of that drinking is much lower than on college campuses nationwide, a recent survey conducted by The Crimson found.

Students at Harvard also rarely suffer academic or personal consequences resulting from drinking, such as falling behind in school or engaging in unplanned sexual activity.

Analysts cite Harvard's location and its students' workaholic tendencies as possible reasons for the campus's less frequent bingeing.

The Crimson's survey mirrored the College Alcohol Study (CAS) conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), which defines binge drinking as five or more drinks in a night for a man and four for a woman.

The study's director, HSPH Lecturer Henry Wechsler, attributes Harvard's lower drinking levels to students' prioritization of academics over alcohol.

"Binge drinkers at Harvard are less committed to binge drinking [than at other schools]," Wechsler says.

While they may binge less often, Harvard students match the national breakdown of college drinkers almost exactly.

The survey found that almost half of all Harvard students binge drink, a third drink moderately and a fifth do not drink at all--proportions which reflect national statistics for 18 to 23-year-old college dorm residents, according to 1999 data compiled by the CAS.

Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68 says it does not come as a surprise that Harvard students fall into many of the same categories as their national counterparts.

"I doubt that the Harvard population is very different from colleges or the American populace generally," Lewis writes in an e-mail message. "I don't think the forces acting on Harvard students are awfully unique, compared to other colleges."

What's The Frequency, Harvard?

Although the College has the same number of binge drinkers as colleges across the nation, Harvard drinkers would be wallflowers in Animal House. Only a quarter of Harvard's binge drinkers meet Wechsler's threshold for "frequent" bingeing, which he places at more than twice in a two-week period.

And though nearly half of all students said they had a drink during the first week of reading period, less than a third of them usually binge when they drink, while more than half of American college students do.

In comparison to other colleges in the Northeast, Harvard students stand out even more as teetotalers.

The Northeast has the highest rate of college binge drinking in the nation, says H. Wesley Perkins, a professor of sociology at Hobart and William Smith Colleges.

Perkins says only a tenth of students at Northeastern colleges abstain from drinking, but Harvard students abstained at the national average of 20 percent.

"If Harvard is similar to the nation, it is actually lower than the rest of the Northeast," Perkins says.

Harvard students recognize their less-than-lush lifestyle, with three-quarters classifying themselves as infrequent, light or moderate drinkers.

"Those that do drink probably just [drink] Friday and Saturday and probably just two or three beers," says Frank W. Petty '02.

As a result, the sheer number of binge drinkers at Harvard is not as significant a statistic as it is on the national level, Wechsler says. The number of Harvard binge drinkers is deceptively high if frequency is not taken into account.

"Binging isn't the discriminating factor here," Wechsler says.

Less frequent binge drinking at Harvard also leads to dramatically lower levels of intoxication. Less than a fifth of Harvard students binged more than twice in the last month, while more than a third of college students on a national level did so.

No Drinks, No Problems

Since Harvard students do not binge drink as much as their counterparts across the country, they are less likely to suffer negative consequences as a result of their drinking.

Harvard students are less than half as likely as the average college students to miss a class due to drinking, fall behind in school or forget where they were or what they did, and only a tenth say drinking has affected their academics.

"We've been impressed by the maturity and wisdom of undergraduates," says James H. Ware, master of Cabot House. "The data that I pay attention to is how often I encounter a situation where a student is in difficulty because of alcohol. The number of times a student has an injury or gets in some type of trouble is very rare."

Less than ten percent of students said they have engaged in unplanned sexual activity because of alcohol, compared to 23 percent of students nationally. Only seven students out of 353 surveyed said they had sex while too drunk to consent, and only one reported getting in trouble with police because of alcohol use, while eight percent of the nation's students said they had.

"Even if students are drinking five drinks in a row as much as once a weekend...they typically manage that without the kind of incidents that would engage the attention of the police or...administration," Ware says.

Harvard students tend to minimize the amount and impact of alcohol use and widely underestimate the prevalence of binge drinking on campus.

Most students think that less than 30 percent of Harvard students binge drink, far less than the 46 percent who actually do, and a majority of students estimated that less than 10 percent of their friends binge drink.

Perhaps because of the comparative lack of alcohol-related problems, the College has not disciplined a student through the Administrative Board exclusively for drinking in the past five years, according to Lewis. The College, says Lewis, is much more concerned with ensuring the health of its students.

"The main thing we are worried about is someone dying or being seriously hurt," he writes in an e-mail message.

Babysitters On Call

One reason why Harvard bingers suffer relatively few alcohol-related problems may be their unusually strong student support networks, Wechsler says.

Fifty six percent of respondents reported "babysitting" or taking care of a friend who was drunk, while just under half of students nationwide had done so.

"People are really willing to [babysit] here, if someone's unable to take care of themselves," says Maggie J. Morgan '04.

Wechsler says this higher frequency of babysitting may be due in part to the Harvard residential system.

"I think that more Harvard students live in suites than at other schools," he says. "There are more people to take care of people."

And Ware says Houses provide a community and network of support for their residents.

"The House system and the residential system are incredibly important," he says. "The House system has a very positive impact on behavior and social norms--students are around resident tutors and around students of other ages all the time."

Harvard Is As Harvard Does

No one factor leaps out to explain Harvard's drinking patterns, but Wechsler attributes the lower frequency and intensity of binge drinking to the fact that Harvard students behave according to stereotypes.

"The evidence shows that people who are more involved in what I call productive activities--studying, community service, the arts--are less often binge drinkers than people who spend time socializing or watching TV or people who are involved in sports," Wechsler says.

More than half of Harvard students cite academics as an important reason not to drink.

"Oftentimes we're working on Friday and Saturday nights," Petty says. "I know a lot of people taking five or six classes. You just can't have a drinking social life and do that."

"People feel guilty if they miss too many classes or fall too far behind," he adds. "It's all about minimizing stress, and people drink up to the point where stress relieved equals stress caused. It's pure economics."

Extracurricular activities also preclude students from drinking too heavily.

"It's a lot harder to wake up when you're hung over," says Suzannah M. Phillips '03.

Harvard students may actually be less inclined to be frequent bingers from the moment they first enter the Yard.

While the same proportion of Harvard students abstained from drinking in high school as students nationally, only 23 percent of Harvard students say they typically binged when they drank in high school, while the national average is more than 27 percent.

Wechsler says he believes Harvard students' lower high school drinking rates may account for students' less frequent binges, as drinking patterns in high school set behavioral patterns for years to follow.

And even colleges with high rates of binge drinking can only do so much to corrupt their students.

"A huge population of drinkers come to campus with plenty of experience drinking," said Thomas A. Workman, communications coordinator for the University of Nebraska's program to reduce binge drinking. "The conversion rate [to heavy drinking] is quite small."

Large state schools also inherit local drinking patterns, which schools like Harvard that place an emphasis on geographic diversity do not.

"The state of Wisconsin has a reputation for drinking a lot...so they've grown up with it if they're in-state," says Jonathan L. Zarov, communications manager for University Health Services at the University of Madison-Wisconsin. Zarov says two-thirds of Wisconsin's students are binge drinkers, and that the university has had problems with alcohol-related fights, vandalism and sexual assault.

Another factor in Harvard's lower binge drinking frequency may be its location.

"In fraternities and sororities...you're saturating college culture," Workman says. "In a city, it's much easier to adapt to the adult norm...and you don't have the bar owners who are reliant on the need to sell to college students."

Because of its location, Harvard students have more weekend options than their rural counterparts.

"Typically, rural schools have higher-risk drinking than urban schools," Perkins says. "There's a broader diversity of things to do, a bigger diversity of age ranges in urban areas."

Less than 20 percent of Harvard students say they drink because there is nothing better to do, leaving a large majority who feel that the University and the surrounding region offer a range of pastimes more enjoyable than getting drunk.

Only 47 percent of Harvard students say they drink with the explicit goal of getting drunk, while 54 percent of college students nationwide do.

Citing alcohol's negative effect on health as the top reason to limit drinking, Harvard students seem particularly concerned with maintaining their own well-being.

"I think that alcohol is fundamentally a poison," A. Nathaniel Chakeres '02 says. " I just don't see why you would want to put a poison in your body."

Fear of losing control was the second most popular reason not to drink given by Harvard undergraduates.

"A lot of people here," Morgan says, "like to be in control."

--Staff Writer Dan Rosenheck can be reached at rosenhec@fas.harvard.edu.