The great campus-drinking debate

Defense
lawyers for University of Virginia student George Huguely said
their client was a "stupid drunk," not a killer. He was widely known to have a
history of abusing alcohol--hardly a rarity on college campuses. Huguely was
convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 26 years in prison for
killing his girlfriend, Yeardley Love, after a day of nonstop drinking.

The
case highlighted yet again the problem of rampant alcohol abuse on campus--and
the situation of friends and bystanders who know perfectly well that someone
has a drinking problem but don't care or know how to intervene.

The
data
on binge
drinking or problem drinking on campus remains grim: 44 percent of students attending four-year colleges drink
alcohol at the binge level or greater. Alcohol overdose contributes to 1,700
deaths on campus each year, along with thousands of injuries and sexual
assaults.