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Drinking-Related Crime
About two out of five students binge-drink (downing at least five drinks at a time for men; at least four for women). Roughly one in four has binged at least ten times in a month -- a big jump from the early 1990s, according to a 2007 study by Columbia University's National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse.All that alcohol exacts a heavy price. Liquor contributes to an estimated 1,700 student deaths and nearly 600,000 injuries each year. It's also a factor in some 95 percent of violent crime on campus -- and not just among perpetrators. Experts note that because thugs often prey on the unwary, a drunk student is well on the way to becoming a crime victim.
Best Practices: Northern Illinois University in DeKalb uses a variety of media to convince students that most of their peers actually drink in moderation. In one 10-year period, the campaign was credited with helping to cut heavy alcohol use by 44 percent. During the same period, Northern Illinois saw a 44 percent dip in students hurting themselves and a 76 percent drop in students hurting others.
Fire Safety
Among the most troubling campus trends is the increase in fires. Campus-housing blazes nearly doubled between 1998 and 2005, jumping from 1,800 to 3,300. Experts say fires pose a particular risk on campus for a simple reason: "A common theme in fatal fires is disabled smoke detectors," says Paul Martin of the nonprofit Center for Campus Fire Safety. Some students, he says, plunder the detectors for free 9-volt batteries; some can't stand to hear them go off while cooking. Other potential dorm-fire starters: halogen lamps and outlets overloaded with the power strips and extension cords of plugged-in students.
Martin says many students don't have a healthy respect for the damage fire can do: "A fire can engulf a whole building in three to five minutes."
Best Practices: At the University of Kentucky in Lexington, fire drills come with a twist: Safety officials use nontoxic theatrical smoke to simulate the real thing. "We post evacuation routes in every room and teach kids to run away from the smoke," says university fire marshal Garry Beach. "During the first drill, 48 out of 50 students ran through the smoke." In a real fire, that would be a mistake: "Afterward," Beach says, "we told the kids they would've been dead. It's a scare tactic, but they learned a lesson that might save their lives."
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