Last week, the Chronicle of Higher Education ran a series of articles and commentaries on the discomforting relationship between colleges and alcohol. Not surprisingly, they began the first article (“A River of Booze“) with the stereotypical “beer and circus” images of a large flagship university. Although much of what I read reminded me of the struggles I observed during my time at the University of Iowa, our residence life staff reminded me that many of the student justifications for drinking noted in these articles sound just like comments made by our own Augustana students.

So instead of writing something myself, this week I’m just going to refer you to this series of articles in the Chronicle. I’ve inserted the link to the opening piece above, and I’ve added another that digs into the challenges that colleges and universities have faced in trying to address dangerous drinking behaviors here.

Although we might be a small college, we struggle with many of the same issues noted by the Chronicle reporters. I hope you’ll find some time to read some of these articles and find out more about our own students’ alcohol-related behaviors. Like a lot of things, we will only succeed in addressing these issues to the degree that we tackle them together.

Make it a good day,

Mark