Just to give you some context: I am from Norway. I am a student. Just started on the final year of my Masters Degree.
In Norway we have what you might call “Initiation weeks” for new students starting university in my home town. This concept is basically a two week drinking binge where every activity is connected in some form to drinking or parties. It is a new party every night, where in some cases the drinking starts as early as the morning.
I recently read a research-paper from 2018 that surveyed drinking habits among students in my home town. 50.000 students answered the survey and the results, shockingly showed that 44% of the students, experienced and anknowledged a damaging and/or risky relationship with alcohol.
So imagine my horror today when I opened the online student paper and was greeted with the headline " How to get drunk with almost no money on your account" which basically encourages students to drink every day just for the sole purpose of getting shitfaced. There is even a list from monday all the way through sunday that outlines the places you should go to drink, where they sell the cheapest drinks; even the bars where you most likely can find other people who will buy you drinks if you are broke.
How on earth can a student paper defend posting something like this??? I am utterly ashamed on behalf of the author and the editors who descided that this was an okay thing to publish.
How embedded is alcohol use or abuse in student life in your country?
Yep. Frosh week festivities are big here too. My frosh week is a blurry haze. It scares me because that much drinking results in risky and downright dangerout behaviours. On campus rapes are higher during frosh week. It’s brutal. I can’t believe that schools don’t clamp down on it more. Or at least have equally visible campaigns promoting safe and sober fun.
I don’t blame you for being angry. I think it sounds like a great opportunity for on-campus activism for you.
College was the beginning of my alcohol problems, and it nearly killed me. Strong emphasis on getting drunk at my school. In college I learned HOW to drink, and of course the version of “how” that I learned was drinking as much as you can. I also learned that I love all-day drinking, and eventually I learned that I love drinking alone. Tried to kill myself twice while drunk at uni.
I don’t like to think about my college years. At all. I really just block it from memory. Some seriously fucking dark times. I barely speak to anyone from back then, too much of a reminder and also I am not the same person they knew back then, anymore. So many people have asked, why don’t you go back for a visit, etc…it’s because I hate the place and the memories tied to it.
I think I already had my drinking problems by then but college/university made it seem normal. I remember when I would meet someone who didn’t drink that I would think they were weird or just something was wrong with them because we ALL drink. I even assumed one girl didn’t drink simply because she was vain and shallow and wanted to be skinny. Ugh. Such horrible thinking on my part.
In my experience (in Canada), it really depends on who you hang out with. There is no shortage of people who have alcohol embedded in their lives, but it isn’t the case that “everybody drinks” either. In my case, I didn’t even notice alcohol being a part of student life. I generally didn’t drink myself, hung out with other students who were the same, and pretty much acted like alcohol didn’t exist. Towards the end of my time there I stepped up the drinking though, but I was already embedded in social circles that didn’t care much about drinking.
Talk to someone else at my school though, especially if they lived on campus, and they’ll likely tell you a very different story dripping with booze.
I remember there was a harm reduction effort on campus called Red Frogs that would attend the big campus parties and such, and hand out water and candy/snacks and be there for partiers who wanted a break, or an alternative to drinking and drugging while they were there.
Very. “College Parties” are legendary for alcoholic debauchery, under-age drinking, and the associated issues of blackouts, sexual assaults, drunken hook-ups, etc.
I went to an all-Male (at the time) Senior Military Academy. There were no fraternities and no alcohol on campus. Freshman and Sophomores were rarely permitted off campus during the normal school year. Students involved in alcohol related incidents off-campus were disciplined. Repeat offenders were kicked out. I was a non-drink during this period of my life. I gotta say that this lack of a party scene at my school was very conducive to physical and academic excellence.
Yeah, we have Freshers week. When my daughter started a couple of years ago she did go on some of the events. I was quite amazed when she said that at the Freshers ball, her and a few mates spent the night playing Uno.
