by David J. Hanson

About the author: David J. Hanson is a professor of sociology at the State University of New York at Potsdam and the author of Alcohol Education: What We Must Do.

“College Students of America Wade Deeper Into Sea of Booze”

“Students Major in Binging”

“College Binge Drinking Soars”

We’ve all seen these or similar distressing headlines. Case in point—newspapers across the country carried frightening statistics reported by Joe Califano and the Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA).

On national television programs, Califano reported horror stories of alcohol abuse among college students, associating it with assault, rape, and even murder. A CASA report asserted that

“60 percent of college women who have acquired sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS and genital...