In addition, 90% of all violence on college campuses is alcohol related, 80% of all males who commit date rape on college campuses are drunk or have been drinking, 55% of all victims of college date rape/rape are drunk or have been drinking, 55% of all successful suicides on college campuses begin with a drink, and the number one cause of death for all males from the ages of 16 to 25 are all alcohol related incidents (Booze News pars

             1-15).

             This is clear and disgusting evidence of both the scope and type of problems that binge drinking causes. It is tragic that our nation's schools did not have the forward thinking needed to seize the opportunity to cut this epidemic out in its infancy.

             Unfortunately, schools within our particular geographic region have been targeted as having some of the most extreme problems with bingeing. A Harvard University study showed that schools in the Midwest and North Central US have the highest instances of bingeing on campus (Iowa State pars 1-3).

             Illinois State University was one of the firsts in the Midwest to distribute a survey of its own to students. It not only questioned students" drinking habits, but also the effects other students" drinking on them, also known as second hand bingeing. "A 1995 ISU survey that polled 275 undergraduate students during classes, asked students whether someone else's alcohol use had affected them in the last 30 days. Twenty-three percent of the students responding said they have experienced a disruption in studying. The same percentage said they had their sleep disturbed and 19 percent had been insulted in some way by a person or persons under the influence of alcohol (Iowa State pars. 14-18).

             A recent study casts an interesting pallor on these American students: they are simply a product of flawed societal teachings to adolescents about alcohol and its use and misuse. .

             "Ironically, in the United States today, we follow the method of alcohol education found least successful in the Vaillant study.