With Saturday’s “Cold War” hockey game, five more home football games and countless birthday parties, MSU students will find plenty of reasons to celebrate this fall - often with alcohol.
Over the next two years, MSU will receive more than $350,000 to study that link between celebrations and drinking.
MSU received the highest grant of those announced last week by the Department of Education. Only 14 other grants were issued out of 110 institutions that applied for the dollars.
Jasmine Greenamyer, alcohol and other drug educator at Olin Health Center, said the study is essential because there are no statistics on celebration drinking - a scenario that has lead to student deaths. Greenamyer said the study will informally monitor tailgating this fall.
“We are going to look specifically at tailgating, spring break, birthdays and St. Patrick’s Day - the days where people throw the rules out the window,” she said. “The study will help us frame the behaviors and attitudes that surround celebration drinking.”
Stacy Meitzner said she notices students drinking during major events on campus.
“I think that it is a given - I know people who start at 9 a.m.,” the English freshman said. “Tailgating goes hand-in-hand with the football game.”
Although the study is ongoing, Greenamyer said students should encourage each other to drink responsibly with Saturday’s hockey game and upcoming football games.
“Friends are the most influential part of a college student’s life,” she said. “They can encourage the celebrations to be more positive and healthy.”
Charles Atkin, chairman of the Department of Communication and co-director of the study, said the study goes beyond binge drinking research to explore “extreme drinking” related to celebrations.
He said the study will first focus on the effectiveness of the Bradley McCue birthday cards MSU students receive a week before their 21st birthday.
McCue, a parks and recreation junior, died in 1998 after consuming 24 shots on his 21st birthday. In April 1999, his mother Cindy McCue started sending birthday cards to MSU students. Now, more than 50 schools have adopted the program.
Cindy McCue will speak on campus Oct. 17 to discuss the consequences of overt alcohol consumption and alcohol safety.
“What we find is a lot of students will have six to eight drinks before midnight and then have six to eight after they turn 21 (that night),” Atkin said. “Then you are getting into the danger zone.”
David Rosenzweig said there is a higher level of energy when students are celebrating.
“You have to have good friends when you are going out,” the history junior said. “You will probably have a lot of fun, but every once in a while you hear of a freak situation going bad.”
The study’s directors said MSU President M. Peter McPherson changed the university’s approach to alcohol awareness in response to riots on MSU’s campus, from a legal one to a health-related one.
McPherson said this ideology likely contributed to MSU’s receiving the high grant amount.
“I think we have been leaders in looking at this issue as a health question,” McPherson said. “That allows us to have a conversation with students about alcohol.”
