Public Relations Problem

The CS Monitor is just the latest publication to quiz university students, distraught parents, and smooth-talking administrators on the 'binge drinking problem.' Like all the other stories, this one looks at the full range of solutions. As any student knows, this includes anything from pushing 'dry' activities to disciplining drunk students.

In my opinion, however, this is a public relations problem. Specifically, schools don't see anything really wrong with drinking unless it messes with their public image. Students don't see anything wrong with it at all.

The first step to preventing alcohol use is for the college community - administrators and professors - to reinvent themselves. College has become a playground for immature adults. Course requirements are notoriously low, admission is at an all-time easy, and most professors don't care about the majority of their students. Below, I'll outline a reinvention plan that a school like Northeastern University (my alma mater) could implement:

1. Grading guidelines. No more than 30% of the students in any class (maybe 40% for honors) should be allowed to receive a grade of A or A-. This will enforce a school-wide grade scale, instead of punishing those who choose to take tough classes. As it is, taking "Cultures of the World" at NU is the most effective way to raise one's GPA; taking advanced math the best way to depress it.
2. Standardized exams for common classes, written and graded to equalize classes. Some departments already do this. Likewise, Middler Year Writing - itself a vital requirement - should have papers graded by a committee and a standard of excellence strictly maintained. In general, classes should be made more difficult, requiring work, though not necessarily innate intelligence. The goal should not be to locate the top 1% of American brains and bestow them with diplomas (the Harvard method), but to take average students and train them rigorously.
3. Strict graduation guidelines. Colleges should offer "certificates of completion" to those who complete their coursework but fail to keep up a certain GPA or cannot pass a department-specific graduation requirement. Professors and administrators should make it a goal to graduate no student who will reflect poorly on the school's academic reputation.
4. Teaching, grading, disciplinary and advising duties should be considered separately from research for professors. That is, the freedom that tenure grants should apply to intellectual pursuits, not ethics or effort in administering classes.
5. Underage drinking should be considered a zero-tolerance activity. The university should expel students on the first offense, and refer all cases to the local police with a recommendation for maximum penalty. Anyone in university employ should be disciplined for failing to report instances of drinking.
6. All members of a fraternity found to engage in hazing should be expelled. It is, after all, a brotherhood, and by joining the members implicitly approve of the joining process.
7. Every professor should engage part of the burden of undergraduate advising. Each prof should have a managable number of sponsored undergraduates and should keep tabs on their progress and pay attention to those who are falling behind.

Unfortunately, American schools are not moving in that direction. Binge drinking, unscholarliness, and mediocrity are considered par for the course. Trend-setter Harvard has gone to the other extreme, hiring a "fun czar" who maintains a sex- & alcohol-inspired website devoted to the 'right to party'. So for now, administrators are taking students' 'right to party' more seriously than they are taking the continued growth in binge drinking.

After all, binge drinking is just a public relations problem.