Credit Where Credit is Due

This looks like a good idea.

"As our community moves forward to address the challenges of dangerous drinking, we acknowledge that many students' use of alcohol may align less with the one-time alcohol abuse incident, and more with the reality that they may be suffering from an addictive abuse of alcohol," said Damon Sims, vice president for student affairs at Penn State.

"This fall, the Division of Student Affairs at Penn State will provide space for an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.

It's a small move, but even if it doesn't solve the alcohol abuse problem here, if it  helps only a handful of students, it will be worth it. Kudos to Sims.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, Party School, Damon Sims, Alcoholics Anonymous

Someone Here at Penn State....

....should steal borrow this idea and adapt it to Penn State. I give you the University of Binge Drinking Web site.

Welcome to the University of Binge Drinking! Here you will become oriented in the dangerous drinking that occurs on our property. You will learn about our policies that take our state laws and modify them so that they allow us to look the other way, the insane amounts of money we make from those binge drinkers, and finally the skyrocketing crime that results from our recklessness, but it is important to remember that's all the 19 and 20 year olds fault.

Go take a look at the site...you won't be sorry that you did.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, University of Iowa, Party School, Alcohol Abuse

If a Drunk Penn State Student Falls in an Alley and "This American Life" Isn't There to See It, Does Penn State Still Have an Alcohol Abuse Problem?

I am a little late on this, but earlier this month the Princeton Review Party School Ranking came out. Penn State dropped from  first place last year to third place this year. That mean's that the national spotlight will now shift away from Penn State to the University of Georgia, this year's top school.  We'll have to wait and see if  Old Main's will to deal with the alcohol abuse problem around here , which was dialed up last year after the first place showing in the Party School Ranking, the alcohol related death of freshman Joe Dado, and a revealing portrayal of Penn State's party culture on This American Life,  diminishes now that the public relation problem has been solved to some degree.

It's worth noting the Penn Staters are taking the drop in the ranking in stride.  Here's Jake Wiest a junior architectural engineering major in a letter to the Collegian.

The review relies on a survey that states an average of 325 students per school filled it out. First, we must assume everyone filling this out is doing so in an honest manner, not just to talk up the school's party scene. Assuming this, than a poll of less than 0.8 percent of the student population, a horribly inadequate number, determined our ranking.
I'm not saying that we would've stayed at No. 1 had more people filled out the survey -- perhaps quite the opposite. I'm saying who cares. Both the university and student population should put little stock into this overly hyped and insufficient survey.

Jake echos Penn State Bullshit Artist Geoff Rushton reaction,

"How do you scientifically gauge something like this?" Rushton said. "I don't think you do."

[...]

For Rushton, the rankings not only hold no real legitimacy -- they also have zero purpose.

The ranking is not representative of all students, he said, as many students drink responsibly.

"It's kind of insulting to our students, who are very bright, hard-working and dedicated to their studies," he said.

But Jake takes a very different lesson away from this observation about the lack of scientific legitimacy of the ranking,

I say the students should just keep doing your thing; everyone knows we party harder than the University of Georgia and Ohio University anyway.

I've gotta say, I think Jake's got a better grip on the reality here than Geoff does.

I mean it was a couple of those very bright, hard-working and dedicated recent Penn State graduates  that used their talents to come up with this.

During their time here, some Penn State graduates engineered a way to drink liquor without actually tasting anything -- and they say it may become the next social staple for college students across the nation.

Their product is the SLIZ Cup -- a "drinking vessel designed to eliminate the cringe between taking a shot and reaching for the chaser," said Anthony Vella, one of the product's creators.

It's a cup on top, with a straw for the handle.

To get the shot and chaser experience, co-creator Maurio Foire, Class of 2010, said users pour the alcohol into the SLIZ cup, add a non-alcoholic beverage and then drink quickly through the straw before letting the drink mix.

[...]

Inventing, marketing and selling SLIZ has been quite the experience, Vella said. The group got the chance to learn hands-on about entreprenuership, meet some interesting people along the way and "probably had too much fun conducting the necessary 'market research' which came with a lot of vodka," he said.

Hey, I know you're curious about the SLIZ Cup, so  here's their Web site.

Anyway, I'll keep an eye on Graham and Old Main this year to see if they slack off in their efforts to deal with Penn State's alcohol abuse problem.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, Princeton Review Party School ranking, Spanier

Here's Another Idea

Sue 'em.

Tired of years of public urination, assaults and vandalism, residents near UC Berkeley's southern edge on Tuesday sued dozens of the university's fraternities.

The lawsuit, filed in Alameda County Superior Court against more than 70 groups and property owners, contends that the fraternities make life miserable for neighbors by encouraging underage drinking, littering sidewalks and streets, partying all night and shooting pellet guns at residents. The suit asks for unspecified monetary damages and an end to the noise and destruction.

Technorati Tags: alcohol abuse, fraternaties, Berkeley, lawsuit

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Could This Be at Play Here

I mentioned in my last post that the University of Iowa is also dealing with an alcohol abuse problem amongst their students. Here is one person's explanation for that problem.

...Tom Mortenson, an Iowa resident and a higher-education policy analyst who writes the newsletter Postsecondary Education Opportunity, told me that Iowa City has changed as the University of Iowa looks beyond state lines for a larger share of its student body. (Iowa enrolls the highest proportion of out-of-state students, 48 percent, of any large public university.[Ed. This is the percentage of freshman. The percentage of all undergraduates is 37% XLS file.])

"Students from Illinois brought truckloads of money. Suddenly, the streets were full of cars that were newer than those of the faculty. We brought in a bunch of rich kids, who partied and drank and got into trouble with the police," Mortenson said. "This isn't what public higher education is supposed to be about."

Penn State, which has come to depend  on out-of-state students for their higher tuition dollars,  doesn't have nearly the same percentage of out-of-state students as Iowa. This year non-residents make up 25% of the University Park student body and 34% of the freshman class.  These numbers have been fairly constant over the past few years.

Could  out-of-state student be the primary factor in the Penn State's alcohol culture? I haven't the slightest idea, but it would be interesting to see  the percentage of students who have alcohol related problems who are from out-of-state. It would also be interesting to compare the family income distribution of students that have had alcohol related problems to the overall income distribution undergraduate families.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, University of Iowa, alcohol abuse

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Elsewhere in Alcohol Abuse

This American Life's coverage of Penn State's alcohol abuse problem has stirred up a lot of discussion in the blogsphere about Penn State's problem in particular, but also more generally about these problems in other university towns. There's a very good discussion going on in the comments over at the Historiann blog which I recommend to those of you, e.g.. MoralHazard,  with an interest in the topic.  In addition, the drinking culture at the University of Iowa is discussed here.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, This American Life, alcohol abuse, Higher Education, University of Iowa

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I Don't Call It The Penn State Propaganda Portal For Nothing

As we saw last month, when This American Life painted an ugly picture of Penn State's football tailgate centered culture of drunkenness, The Penn State Propaganda Shop responded defensively and obliquely. However, back in  October of 2008 when This American Life ran a more positive story about the University, the folks in  Old Main ran to The Penn State Propaganda Portal to tell the world. 

Technorati Tags: Penn State, This American Life, alcohol abuse

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Prebuttal

Whenever the folks in The Old Main Propaganda Shop put up a post like the one about alcohol abuse at Penn State that I blogged about the other day, my first thought is that they are responding to some negative publicity or anticipating some negative publicity. However, I didn't bother to try to figure out the impetus for alcohol abuse post before I blogged about. Now I've stumbled on to the likely external event that triggered it. The post went up on The Old Main Propaganda Portal on Thursday December 17th. This American Life aired an entire program on Penn State's alcohol problem on December 18th.

This American Life really captures what it's like around here on a football week and it's not pretty. I highly recommend a listen. It's very informative and, at the same time,  entertaining in only the way that This American Life and Ira Glass can be.

You can read some of the student reaction to the program at Onward State. Most of them are in deep denial and incensed that This American Life failed to mention how special Penn State students really are. Ok, you can stop laughing now.


Technorati Tags: This American Life, alcohol abuse, Penn State

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Here's An Idea

This week The Penn State Propaganda Portal once more addresses alcohol abuse at Penn State. We learn: Graham is dedicated to to eradicating dangerous drinking;  he has made it top priority from day one; despite Graham's efforts at Penn State the problem persists and has gotten worse nationwide [non sequitur  in the original];Damon Sims tells us that Penn  State has "seen less progress than we would like[ i.e. none] in the ongoing effort [long list of ineffective programs given] to curb high-risk drinking among our students..."; and finally that " [t]he possession of alcohol and alcohol sales are not permitted at Penn State student-athletic events, and alcohol advertising is prohibited in those facilities."

When I read the last bit my first reaction was what a bunch of bullshit, what about football tailgates? Then I realized that this is a factually correct, but a deeply, and my guess is intentionally , misleading, statement. Even though Beaver Stadium is full of drunks on football Saturdays, people can't buy or consume alcoholic beverages in the  stadium. The question arises if Old Main thinks it's a good idea to ban alcohol at student-athletic events why do they tolerate it at the tailgates that precede and follow football games? Yeah, I know the answer. It's a rhetorical question.

Since everything else they've tried has failed to curtail dangerous drinking, I think it's time to ban alcohol at tailgates and see what happens.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, tailgates, alochol abuse, Spanier

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Boilermakers Will Do It Everytime

The Collegian reports that

Kevin T. Foley, of Somerville, N.J., consumed alcohol to the degree that he could no longer care for himself and was apprehended at the Atherton Hall bus stop near East College Avenue, police said.

Foley (senior-economics) finished first place in the Boilermaker Invitational...

I guess his first mistake was to enter that boilermaker contest.

BTW, I'm sorry about the time gap between posts. I've been occupied  debating health care reform elsewhere. I hope to pick up the posting schedule soon.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, alcohol abuse, humor

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A Binge of Drinking Posts

A new study of binge drinking at Washington University School of Medicine has found that following the raising of drinking age to 21 the rate of binge drinking in men has declined, but for women it has slightly increased.  Here's the kicker,

The biggest surprises involved differences between college students and men and women of the same age not enrolled in college. Binge drinking declined in young men, unless they were in college. It was up slightly in young women, but significantly higher in college women.
 
Among 18- to 20-year-old non-college men, binge drinking declined by more than 30% over the study period, whereas it was statistically unchanged among the men in college. For men ages 21 to 23, rates of binge drinking declined just more than 10 percent but remained virtually the same in those of the same age who attended college. In women ages 21 to 23, binge drinking increased about 20 percent among non-students, but the increase was more than 40 percent among women in college.

This suggests that Penn State and other schools with drinking problems should look inward , not outward, when looking for the cause and solution to their drinking problems.

Technorati Tags: alcohol abuse, Penn State, binge drinking

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Elevating a Debate From Comments...

I'm having a bit of a debate with  reader MoralHazard in comments over my last post on the misleading headline. MoralHazard contends that the scientific evidence backs the Penn State Propaganda Portal's characterizations of the impact of parental tolerance of alcohol consumption by a child while they are living at home and that child's propensity to binge drink in college. I disagree, but I do think I should have been more careful in making my case. So here goes.....

I'll begin with the literature and then look at how it is characterized by the Propaganda Portal. In addition to the research by Caitlin Abar, Beau Abar, and Rob Turrisi, which is the main focus of the Propaganda Portal piece, two other studies are mentioned, one by Kristie Long Foley, D. Altman, R. Durant, and M. Wolfson and another by Kelli Komro, et. al.

MoralHarzard also cited a fourth study done in Sweden by Nicholos Koutakis, Haken Stattin and Margret Kerr.

Do these studies either individually or taken together support the assertion of the Old Main Propaganda Shop concerning college age binge drinking?

Here's what Komro et. al. found.

Student report, at age 12, of parental provision of alcohol and home alcohol availability, and parental report of providing alcohol to their child and the accessibility of alcohol in the home, were associated with significant increases in the trajectories of young adolescent alcohol use and intentions from ages 12-14 years. Student report of receiving alcohol from their parent or taking it from home during their last drinking occasion were the most robust predictors of increases in alcohol use and intentions over time.

There's a whole lot of hedging going on. Note that no distinction  is made as a predictor between "parental provision" and "home alcohol availability", nor was any distinction made between "alcohol use" and "intention" as a response. So on the one hand, having alcohol setting  around the house could cause a kid to plan on drinking or a parent giving a kid alcohol could result in the kid drinking alcohol. Or one of the other two combinations my be at play. This is just about worthless. And further, it has nothing to do with binge drinking in college.

The Swedish study divided a group of 7th grade students (~13 years-old) into a control and treatment groups. Both groups were asked about their alcohol use. The the parents of the treatment group followed a program of conveying disapproval of drinking to their children. The control was not instructed to alter its behavior in anyway. The groups were followed for two years and surveyed again. It was found that alcohol use increased in both groups with time, but at a lower rate in the treatment group. The obvious flaw is that children who have been indoctrinated against alcohol use are likely to under report its use when surveyed. And once again this has nothing to do with binge drinking in college.

The Foley, et. al. study found that a child whose parents allowed them to drink unsupervised in high school was more likely to binge drink in college. It also found that a child who was allowed to drink with the family was less likely to binge drink in college.

The Abar, et. al. study didn't distinguish the social context in which parents allowed their children to drink and found that parental tolerance of a child's alcohol use in high school is associated with a higher likelihood of binge drinking in college.

Only the Foley, et. al. and Anbar et. al studies have any relevance to binge drinking in college.

Let's look at that Propaganda Portal piece once more. The headline, "Zero tolerance alcohol policy good choice for parents," ignores the Foley, et. al. finding that when children drink with family they are less likely to binge drink. Further, the Anbar, et al. study found that "the greater number of drinks that a parent had set as a limit for the teens, the more often they drank and got drunk in college," which suggest that there may be some safe, nonzero lower limit for the amount a child is permited to drink.

Then there's the lede.

Restaurants in Germany legally sell alcohol to teenagers after their 16th birthdays and French children drink wine with dinner at an early age, but U.S. parents who follow this relaxed European example, believing it fosters a healthier attitude toward alcohol, should be careful — it may increase the likelihood that their children binge drink in college.

This is in direct contradiction to the Foley, et. al.  finding, which is that the relaxed European example of drinking with family reduces the likelihood of binge drinking. The Anbar, et. al.  study does not contradict the earlier study, since it doesn't account for social context.

Finally, there is this point, "there is no scientific basis to the common belief that prohibiting alcohol turns it into a 'forbidden fruit' and encourages abuse." What's the point,that there is no downside to zero tolerance? That can't be it, since the Foley, et al. study showed a positive effect for allowing alcohol consumption in a family setting on binge drinking.

Look, I'll admit this is a difficult problem and I'm not certain that Foley, et. al. is correct or that Anbar, et. al. is wrong. I consider the whole thing to be an open question right now, which is certainly deserving of more study. What bothers me is the Old Main Propaganda Shop trying to spin these preliminary findings to serve their own agenda.

So MoralHazard, what do you think? The comment section can feel a bit cramped. If you'd like to respond more fully email me and I put your response up as a post.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, alcohol abuse, propaganda

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Misleading Headline

Zero tolerance alcohol policy good choice for parents

That's the headline the Penn State Propaganda Portal put on an article about research done at Penn State on the connection between a parent's tolerance of underage drinking when the their child is living at home and the child's likelihood of binge drinking as a college freshman. The researchers surveyed nearly 300 college freshman who

... related their drinking habits to their parents' modeling and permissibility of alcohol use. Those students whose parents did not permit them to drink underage — about half of the group — were significantly less likely to drink heavily in college, regardless of gender. In addition, "the greater number of drinks that a parent had set as a limit for the teens, the more often they drank and got drunk in college," said Abar. Whether the parents themselves drank, on the other hand, appeared to have little effect on predicting their children's behaviors when accounting for the permissibility they exhibited toward teen alcohol use.

Further research is needed to confirm the preliminary study, said [lead investigator] Abar. For one thing, she did not separate students who specifically drank with their parents at meals from those whose parents allowed their children to drink both inside and outside of the house.

A previous study in 2004 by Kristie Foley, Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, North Carolina, showed that teenagers who received alcohol from their parents for parties were up to three times more likely to binge drink within a month, while those who drank only with the family were less likely to binge. So the context in which a parent provides alcohol may be key.

Why did the folks in the Old Main Propaganda Shop decide to charaterize this study as suggesting that

...there is no scientific basis to the common belief that prohibiting alcohol turns it into a "forbidden fruit" and encourages abuse[,]

when the earlier, better designed study did provide a scientific basis for the the common belief? And why did they use a misleading headline? My guess is that it is part and parcel of Old Main's general policy of shifting of responsibility for Penn State's alcohol abuse problem from the University to anyone else. Bars have been the typical target of Old Main's finger pointing, but this isn't the first time Old Main has suggested that the problem starts at home.

There seems to be a bit of character problem in Old Main.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, propaganda, alcohol abuse

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The Optics of This Are Not Good

Politico has more on the emerging scandal over Rep. John Murtha's use of the Penn State Electro-Optics Center to direct money to clients of PMA a lobbying firm with close ties to the Congressman.

A source with long ties to the EOC said that Karl Harris, the center’s director, spent so much time at PMA’s office that “they had a designated space in which he could set up his stuff.”

Sources both inside and outside the EOC said Harris once told them that a Washington state contractor called nLight wouldn’t receive funding through the center — despite having made a request — because it had dropped PMA as its lobbying firm.

“Of course, we [learned] that nLight had just terminated PMA’s contract and so we could not do anything,” Harris wrote in a May 2006 e-mail message. “My only concern, between you and me, is I wonder what effect their dropping their contract with PMA will have on the viability [of] two FY07 plus-up requests.” “Plus-up” is the budgetary name for an earmark.

Harris did not return calls seeking comment.

Edward Liszka, director of defense-related research at Penn State with responsibility for the EOC, defended both Harris and the center.

“The EOC really doesn’t do lobbying, so if a company that the EOC is working with has PMA as a lobbyist, the EOC wouldn’t necessarily know that,” Liszka said in an interview. Liszka said he was “pretty confident there’s no connection between Karl Harris and PMA. There would be no reason to; he doesn’t need to have one. I know he’s visited their offices in the past, but we don’t need to talk to PMA about anything we do.”

Constrast Liszka's assertion that the Center does no lobbying with this characterization of the EOC from a 2003 Pittsburgh Business Times article.

Mr. Murtha is widely credited for helping to secure federal funding to establish the East Franklin Township-based Electro-Optics Center, which is managed by the Penn State Applied Research Lab. The Electro-Optics Center acts as a clearinghouse for technical expertise, offers laboratory and research assistance to fledgling electro-optics firms and lobbies lawmakers on their behalf. The center also conducts research projects for the U.S. Department of Defense and the Navy, among others.

How could Liszka not know that lobbying was being done by the Center, since it appears to be a feature and not a bug? Liszka is also contradicted by

...internal EOC documents from recent years [that] suggest that EOC officials were informed of which lobbying firms represented which of the corporate partners seeking funding.

For instance, an internal fiscal year 2003 document outlining requests for EOC projects being pushed by Murtha noted the name and contact information for each lobbyist seeking funding on behalf of a client. The document stated that Cunningham and another then-PMA lobbyist were seeking $27 million in funding for their clients, who included a Boeing subsidiary, a Texas company called DRS Infrared and a small California defense contractor.

In the end, Murtha was able to steer to those PMA clients — through the EOC — $9.5 million of the $27 million they sought.

Other internal EOC documents show a similar interest in which lobbying firms were representing which contractors — with special attention paid to PMA clients.

Stay tuned.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, Penn State Electro-Optics Center, Rep. John Murtha, lobbying, scandal

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Does the FDA Have Guidelines for an Organic Tradition?

Because I erroneously titled a post last year State Paddy's Day rather than State Patty's Day,  I've been getting a slew of traffic from Google searches from people who now have the same misconception about the name of the this  event as I did last year.

Not much has changed since last year. Safeguard Old State is still flogging the "organic" tradition nonsense, so I thought that for all those people landing here in search of information on State Patty's Day, I'd recycle  another post from last year  which gets the name right and  encapsulates my thoughts on this stupidity.

---

I want to thank the folks at Safeguard Old State for demonstrating with their support of State Patty's Day that Penn State flack Bill Mahon is wrong about the cause of alcohol abuse at Penn State.

Here is Bill in 2006, shortly after the news of Penn State's number two rank as a party school broke, explaining that yes there is an alcohol problem at Penn State, but no it isn't Penn State's fault; it's the bar's fault.

...Bill Mahon said with the amount of marketing of alcohol, he is surprised the university isn't number one. He said 353 Penn State students were taken to the emergency room for alcohol overdoses last year. "There are 90 bottle shops, beer distributors, bars, state (liquor) stores and restaurants that sell alcohol within a five mile radius of Old Main. Our students don't stand a chance," Mahon said in an e-mail. "We are not going to wave the white flag and give up, but it is a struggle every year to compete with the businesses in this community that aggressively promote alcohol consumption with our students," Mahon said

I've always found this a bit odd. It's as if Old Main were arguing that the large enrollment at University Park isn't due to any Penn State policy, rather it is a result of all of the student housing within a five mile radius of the Old Main.

The reason there is an alcohol problem at Penn State isn't the bars, it's because of the party school culture amongst the students, as SOS has so clearly shown us. Many student select Penn State because of that culture and many of those that come here for other reasons are soon enough adopted into the culture. This means that it is self-sustaining. And the bars are a product of the culture not its cause.

The reason that such a culture can exist is that University policies make it possible. Low academic standards, the celebration of sports over academics, and the ethos of the primacy of practical over liberal education, means that the life of the mind gets short shrift and students aren't challenged and pushed to think. Parties and alcohol are an escape from the dull grind of being trained for life in a cubical.

Old Main can begin the long process of changing the culture by raising standards and emphasizing the joy of learning for its own sake.

That won't happen with Spanier at the helm. He's the the epitome of the anti-intellectual party animal only without the alcohol. Let's call him Graham "O'Douls" Spanier.

So thank-you once again Safeguard Old State for your Spanieresque defense of State Patty's Day. It makes clear exactly where the problem lies.

Postscript: As always, ha-mace is a must read on the topic.


Technorati Tags: Penn State, State Patty's Day, Safeguard Old State, Spanier, Bill Mahon, alcohol abuse, anti-intellectual

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What's Are the First Two Things You Think Of When You Think Penn State?

As part of Pennsylvania's new right-to-know law, the Commonwealth is required to post all of its contracts online. The law does not go into effect until next January, but the the contract database went online yesterday. I'll be putting up a link to it over on the right soon. [The link is up under the Right-To-Know heading.]

I decided to give the database a spin. But what to search for? Well, why not look at the contracts which Penn State has signed with the state. I only found one in the database. It is a multi-year alcohol; educational grant that the University received from the Liquor Control Board in 2006 for $250,000. The contract and supporting material such as periodic reports are posted in a pdf file. I decided to rummage through it to see if I could find anything interesting. It didn't take long.

PSU PLCB - Upload a Document to Scribd

Read this document on Scribd: PSU PLCB

That's right, the PLCB was concerned that Penn State would use the funds for propaganda. Is it just Penn State that the PLCB was concerned with or is this a standard clause in their contracts? Well, the PLCB gave out a bunch of educational grants this year. You can find and peruse them by searching the database for all PLCB contracts. Many of them are to colleges. None of these contracts, at least that I could find, have a similar clause.

Apparently, the first two things the folks in Harrisburg think of when they think Penn State are alcohol abuse and propaganda and they are out to stop both.

They've got Graham's number.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, alcohol abuse, PLCB, Spanier, propaganda

The Nittany Lion: Shitfaced Again

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has lengthy article on efforts by the State College police department to crackdown on underage drinking. The story should be familiar to those of you who live here.

"People are drinking faster to get drunk," said borough Police Lt. Dana Leonard.

"The first eight weeks of the fall semester are what we call the Red Zone. The weather is still warm and the newly arriving students have plenty of money in their pockets," he said. "There is a celebratory atmosphere around Penn State football games."

The semester's early weeks can be even more dangerous for freshmen. "They're relatively naive," Lt. Leonard said.

[...]

About 4,000 of the 7,000 incidents handled annually by State College police involve alcohol, a share that has been rising in recent years, according to department data.

Often, officers on the midnight shift rush from call to call, breaking up street fights, aiding young people unconscious outside bars, or -- as was the case around midnight this same Friday -- a young man passed out while seated on a public transit bus.

"I've seen people with an extremely low pulse near death," said Officer Andrew Sim, one of two SIP officers working the midnight shift. "Once we finally do slow down, at 3 or 4 a.m., just driving around the streets you'll see someone laid out on the sidewalk, lying in a yard.

"In winter months there are hypothermia issues. You don't know how long they've been lying there," he said. "They're just soaking wet in the snow.''

Among those cited this summer as a result of an SIP investigation was a fraternity suspected of supplying alcohol to a teenager who later fractured his skull in two places and broke his collarbone trying to do a back flip off a wall outside the post office.

In all, 89 citations for furnishing alcohol to minors were issued in the borough last year, 37 percent more than in the year before SIP debuted. Most are older Penn State students, including hosts of off-campus apartment parties where students sometimes drink for free, Lt. Leonard said.

[...]

If Penn State has been unable to quell dangerous drinking, it's not for lack of initiatives.

It has an array of enforcement, education and counseling programs and will use Liquor Control Board money this fall to add campus SIP patrols. Non-alcoholic activities are regular weekend fare in the Hetzel Union Building, and a year ago, Penn State banned alcohol from tailgate parties from kickoff to final play at Beaver Stadium, the 107,000-seat home of Nittany Lions football.

Even so, alcohol-related trips by students to Mount Nittany Medical Center are up from 199 in 1999-2000 to 444 in the 2006-2007 school year. The average age of those treated is 20 years old, and their average blood alcohol content has risen to 0.235, nearly three times the state's legal limit for an adult.

The reason the problem persists is that Penn State doesn't actually think that it bears any responsibility for the problem. The fact that the University appointed its chief bullshit artist to head up the committee to deal with the problem should indicate to everyone that Penn State sees this as primarily a pr problem. And the pr strategy for dealing with the problem is to shift the blame to someone else, anyone else. It's the PLCB's fault; no no, it's the bars' fault; no I've got it, the problem is with the hair salons.

Bill Mahon, a Penn State administrator [bullshit artist] who co-chairs a town-and-gown committee on dangerous drinking, said he'd like to think the emergency room trips meant awareness campaigns are making students more inclined to get help. But he cited other factors, including the debut of Sunday liquor sales in the state, loosening of bottle shop restrictions and a trend toward more dangerous drinking behaviors nationally on college campuses.

About 100 businesses serving alcohol are located within five miles of Penn State's Old Main administration building, and some aggressively market dollar-pitchers and 25-cent drafts. One hair salon near campus even advertises complimentary beer.

"It could be any combination of these things," Mr. Mahon said. "I don't think we're unique."

Two-thirds of those charged with drunk driving in the borough last year were not students, and Mr. Mahon said such ratios illustrate how far-reaching in society the problem is. "This is not just a student issue," he said.

So Bill would like to think-actually he wants you to think- that there isn't more heavy drinking, just more people seeking help. Damn I think the the Collegian received the "Graham Spanier Award for Most Outrageous Spin" last year for trying pedal that tripe. He also blames Sunday liquor sales-Sundays are actual fairly quiet around here-, loosening of bottle shop restrictions, and the favorite of teenagers everywhere, "But Mooooom, everybody's doing it." And about those 2/3's of non-student drunk driving arrests, how many are Penn State faculty and administrators? A group whose alcohol problem goes unnoticed because they tend not to fall out of open windows on to the sidewalks. Although I've seen one professor carried out of a bar, in front of some of his students, too drunk to walk .

Until Old Main owns up to the fact that Penn State's alcohol problem is, in fact, an academic problem there will be no solution.



Technorati Tags: Penn State, alcohol abuse, spin, Bill Mahon, Spanier

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My Name is Nittany Lion and I'm an Alcoholic

The first step toward recovery from an alcohol problem is admitting that you have an alcohol problem. Let's see if we can find such an admission in this press release announcing a new partnership between Penn State and the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board ostensibly targeting Penn State's drinking problem.

University Park, Pa. -- Penn State will launch a nearly $600,000 program to aggressively target the increasing national dangerous-drinking problem that is having a detrimental impact on its students.[Nope. No admission that that it is a Penn State Problem here. It just a national problem.]

The unique program,[Graham is fond of claiming things that he does are unique, even when they aren't.] funded by Penn State with assistance from the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB), will be in addition to other significant steps Penn State launched starting a decade ago in attempt to keep students safe from a dangerous drinking problem that is growing nationwide.[There's that nationwide problem causing problems for Penn State again.]

"There is a pervasive culture of dangerous drinking in Happy Valley,[We are getting closer to home, but still no admission that it is a Penn State problem.] and our community is paying an enormous price as many lives are lost or changed forever as a result of alcohol overdose, alcohol-related accidents, bar fights and drunken driving crashes. The tragic consequences -- which include alcohol related deaths -- are staggering and heart-wrenching," said Vicky Triponey, vice president for student affairs at Penn State.

"This initiative, combined with other significant steps Penn State has taken in recent years,[You can find a list of everything Penn State has done from 1984 through 1999 here; it includings partnering with the PLCB in 1998. Still there is a problem. Shouldn't one conclude at this point that Spanier has failed to deal with this problem?] is an indication how serious we think this problem is within our community," said Triponey. "This is a national problem; it is a problem that exists in every community. [There we go again. These guys really have trouble admitting that they have a problem.]It is a problem that typically begins for most students in high school and continues into adulthood. But it is a problem for which Penn State will leverage its research capability, its substance-abuse expertise and its years of experience with this issue to develop even bolder approaches to confront the problem and create a healthier environment."[This looks close to an admission of a problem, but it misses the mark. Short version:They were drunks when they matriculated, but we'll straighten them out.]

The Penn State Commission for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) will administer the initiative, which is being funded by nearly $344,000 from the University, along with a grant of $250,000 from the PLCB. The grant will be used to implement substance abuse prevention initiatives at 20 Penn State undergraduate campuses.

"This initiative is the first of its kind [Even the PLCB chairman is taking up the uniqueness talk.] between the PLCB and a statewide university system, and it is an important advancement in our mission to prevent underage and high-risk drinking," said PLCB Chairman Patrick "PJ" Stapleton. "This study will have an unprecedented impact by helping to educate more than 80,000 college students [And he decide not to point out that those 80.000 college students are all at Penn State.] about the harmful effects of alcohol. It will also help to prevent long-term alcohol misuse."

Throughout the three-year grant period, CSAP will provide training opportunities and resources for campus representatives on proven, effective strategies to address substance abuse. In addition, a social norms campaign will be developed for all campuses using campus-specific data obtained through the National College Health Assessment that will be administered during the grant period.

"We are very excited that this PLCB funding will provide us with increased resources and opportunities to address high risk drinking at all our Penn State campuses," [This is about as close to an admission as we get that Penn State has a problem.]said Susan Kennedy, associate director for educational services at University Health Services and primary investigator for the project.

The grant proposal includes funding for a full-time community health educator, who will be responsible for the grant implementation and will guide campuses through the assessment, strategic planning and implementation processes. This staff member will serve as the liaison with the PLCB and ensure the grant objectives are being met.

A decade ago Penn State President Graham Spanier was one of the first university leaders in the nation to speak out about the huge impact dangerous drinking was having on college students. [One of the first. Why of course, but he didn't talk about Penn State's unique problem. Rather, it is a generic problem for college students.] Since that time Penn State has launched a number of programs to address the issue, a number of which have served as models for other college campuses. [As I wrote above these programs didn't actually do much to solve the problem. The reason other schools have adopted them, if any in fact did, is likely because of their PR value.]

The CSAP is an advisory group to Triponey. The group's mission is to foster an environment that does not support the abuse of alcohol, tobacco or other substances. Its membership consists of students, faculty, staff and administrators.

The PLCB is an independent state agency that manages the alcohol beverage industry in Pennsylvania. Using funds derived from the revenues of its Wine & Spirits stores, it regularly awards grants to study and prevent alcohol abuse.

The $600,000 is a big pot of money which could be used to some good effect. My guess is that for Old Main this is about appearing to do something, while in fact kicking the (beer) can down the road.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, Spanier, alcohol abuse, PLCB

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