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The legal age for drinking alcohol in the United
States is twenty-one. Underage drinking is a
crime but also a common part of college social
life. This week in our Foreign Student Series,
we look at alcohol policies at American colleges
and universities.
These policies differ from school to school, as
do enforcement efforts. But many schools have
been moving to strengthen their rules.
The United States has more than seventeen
million students in higher education. Each year,
one thousand seven hundred of them age eighteen
to twenty-four die from alcohol-related road
crashes and other injuries.
Six hundred thousand more are injured while
under the influence of alcohol. And almost seven
hundred thousand are attacked by another student
who has been drinking.
These numbers, from a two thousand five report,
are on a government Web site:
collegedrinkingprevention.gov.
One behavior that college officials are trying
to prevent is binge drinking, having four or
five drinks or more in a short period of time.
Some researchers have found that students who
think binge drinking is normal often
overestimate how much other students really
drink. A person can die of alcohol poisoning.
At the University of Oklahoma, new policies went
into effect after a nineteen-year-old student
died in two thousand four. He had been drinking
heavily at a fraternity party.
Now alcohol is banned from all fraternity and
sorority houses and university housing. Student
organizations can serve alcohol at events but
only on Friday and Saturday nights. And they
must provide for transportation to and from
off-campus parties. Other new requirements
include an alcohol education program that
first-year students take online.
The policies govern behavior on campus and off.
With a first violation, students pay
seventy-five dollars and their parents are told.
They must also take an alcohol education class.
For a second "strike," they have to pay one
hundred fifty dollars. A third strike means a
suspension for at least one semester.
Since January of two thousand five, six hundred
thirty-three students have had a first strike.
Thirty have had a second strike -- and one has
been suspended. An official at Oklahoma tells us
the aim is not just to punish but to change
behavior and the culture at the university.
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