by Edward H. Hammond

About the author: Edward H. Hammond is president of Fort Hayes State University and served as chairman of the National Collegiate Alcohol Awareness Week in October 1997.

The recent deaths of college students in Louisiana, Massachusetts, and Virginia from consuming too much alcohol are paramount tragedies which we should all work to prevent. But if we draw the wrong lessons from these deaths, they will occur again and again.

Most Students Are Responsible

We live in a complex society, and perhaps no portion of our society is more complex than a college or university campus. In a five-minute stroll across campus, a casual observer can find students who are undergoing a rite of passage into adulthood, others who are doggedly hanging on to prerogatives of adolescence, and...