Forum yields new ideas to curb drinking

The University-Community Forum on Alcohol Issues held Feb. 6 in Grainger Hall produced a spate of new ideas on how to battle student binge-drinking.

The forum was sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Project on campus, a program aimed at cutting the high rate of binge drinking. Students, along with some faculty and staff members, split into discussion groups and came up with several ideas, including:

• The campus and community should work together to encourage the opening of more dance clubs in downtown Madison that let anyone 18 and above to enter.
• Open bars to those 18-and-older through the use of wristbands, allowing students of different ages to socially mix without breaking any laws.
• Create a service that students can dial to get a ride home when intoxicated.
• Develop a program to allow hosts of off-campus house parties that are spinning out of control to call for help without fear of being busted.
• Schedule more nonalcoholic events without promoting the nonalcoholic angle, since that turns off many students.
• Create an all-night university movie channel as an example of increasing late-night alternatives to students.
• Improve the “cold” atmosphere of Union South’s design, in order to increase attendance at its nonalcoholic events.
• Step up education efforts directed at freshmen about binge drinking and nonalcoholic alternatives at UW–Madison.

Overall, the campus should present students with an overwhelming array of alternatives to binge drinking. The number of new alternatives needs to be increased exponentially, not incrementally, group members say.