On Iowa Student Experiences : Binge Drinking

High-risk alcohol consumption by college students is a matter of increasing concern in postsecondary education in the United States. Consequences of excessive and underage drinking, including alcoholrelated deaths, injuries, and assaults; unsafe and/or unwanted sex; property damage and vandalism; drunk driving; arrests and other interactions with police; health problems; and academic problems, affect most campuses and most students, even those who choose not to drink (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), 2007). A 2002 NIAAA report, A Call to Action: Changing the Culture of Drinking at U.S. Colleges, noted “a tradition of drinking has developed into a kind of culture – beliefs and customs – entrenched in every level of college students’ environments . . . These beliefs and the expectations they engender exert a powerful influence over students’ behavior toward alcohol” (p. 1). This research brief focuses on results from the Research on Iowa Student Experiences (RISE) study regarding frequency and impacts of binge drinking and “a culture of drinking” among undergraduates at The University of Iowa. The RISE Project