Delta Zeta supports National Collegiate Alcohol Awareness Week through i Have a Choice Program

This week Delta Zeta joins thousands of students, faculty, and staff of colleges and universities in observance of National Collegiate Alcohol Awareness Week (NCAAW). Delta Zeta’s i Have a Choice Program and NCAAW seek to educate college-age students about the dangers of alcohol abuse, inspiring them to examine their lifestyles and make informed decisions regarding these substances. High-risk drinking and its consequences affect hundreds of thousands of students every year. College Drinking: Changing the Culture shared the following facts:

• Death: 1,825 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die from alcohol-related unintentional injuries, including motor vehicle crashes (Hingson et al., 2009).
• Injury: 599,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are unintentionally injured under the influence of alcohol (Hingson et al., 2009).
• Assault: 696,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are assaulted by another student who has been drinking (Hingson et al., 2009).
• Sexual Abuse: 97,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are victims of alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape (Hingson et al., 2009).
• Unsafe Sex: 400,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 had unprotected sex and more than 100,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 report having been too intoxicated to know if they consented to having sex (Hingson et al., 2002).
• Academic Problems: About 25 percent of college students report academic consequences of their drinking including missing class, falling behind, doing poorly on exams or papers, and receiving lower grades overall (Engs et al., 1996; Presley et al., 1996a, 1996b; Wechsler et al., 2002).
• Health Problems/Suicide Attempts: More than 150,000 students develop an alcohol-related health problem (Hingson et al., 2002), and between 1.2 and 1.5 percent of students indicate that they tried to commit suicide within the past year due to drinking or drug use (Presley et al., 1998).
• Drunk Driving: 3,360,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 drive under the influence of alcohol (Hingson et al., 2009).
• Property Damage: More than 25 percent of administrators from schools with relatively low drinking levels and over 50 percent from schools with high drinking levels say their campuses have a "moderate" or "major" problem with alcohol-related property damage (Wechsler et al., 1995).
• Alcohol Abuse and Dependence: 31 percent of college students met criteria for a diagnosis of alcohol abuse and 6 percent for a diagnosis of alcohol dependence in the past 12 months, according to questionnaire-based self-reports about their drinking (Knight et al., 2002).

(Text from http://www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov/StatsSummaries/snapshot.aspx)

 

 

Join Delta Zeta this week in our observance of i Have a Choice and National Collegiate Alcohol Awareness Week and educate yourself, your family and your friends on the dangers of alcohol abuse. Share how you are participating in Delta Zeta’s i Have a Choice Program and National Collegiate Alcohol Awareness Week through Facebook and Twitter, using the hashtags #DeltaZeta and #NCAAW.