Pepperdine students are above average.
And it’s not something they should be proud of.
According to a Harvard study between 1993 and 2001, 41 percent of Pepperdine students admitted to drinking and driving within the past 30 days. That’s 13.6 percent higher than the national average, but comparable to other colleges and universities.
But do Pepperdine students WANT to be comparable to other schools?
According to the mission statement, Pepperdine University is “committed to the highest standards of academic excellence and Christian values, where students are strengthened for lives of purpose, service and leadership.” Drunk driving doesn’t seem to fit into that scenario very well. In fact, it is completely contrary to almost everything in that statement.
While drinking, in and of itself, is an integral part of the college experience for many, its effects can be quite damaging. People who frequently indulge, and many who overindulge, can find themselves struggling in the academic arena. And alcohol has little to do with strengthening an individual’s sense of purpose or leadership. The only type of service it affords is community service if, and when, things get out of hand.
Granted, college is a time in people’s lives where they learn some extremely valuable life lessons. And the self-discovery achieved in that time is priceless. But some lessons don’t come easily. Although invaluable, there are a few lessons that aren’t learned until it’s just too late.
Take drinking, for instance. Thousands of high school and college students across the nation begin experimenting with alcohol, testing the limits of tolerance. Usually, this pursuit of excess pleasure only harms the partaker. (Often the next morning.) But occasionally what began as a night of innocent indulgence and entertainment can earn partiers a night in jail. Or worse.
Several Pepperdine students have had brushes with the law for driving under the influence of alcohol. Most recently junior Leah Wright was involved in a hit-and-run situation that resulted in a woman being airlifted to UCLA Medical Center for multiple injuries. And junior Adam Holdridge almost killed himself after plowing his car into a tree in front of the Osbournes’ house. Many others have stories of friends or family members injuring others or themselves in alcohol-related incidents, or getting lucky and just getting charged with a DUI. Lucky, but expensive.
And when it comes to sex, college students don’t fare much better. Where there’s alcohol, potentially dangerous encounters are more likely. When alcohol is involved, safer sex practices are more likely to abandoned. In fact, 60 percent of college women diagnosed with a sexually transmitted disease were drunk at the time of infection.
You’d think this generation would know better.
By the time Generation Y students find their way to college, they’ve likely sat through a weekly D.A.R.E. program that urged them to “Just Say No” to drugs; fidgeted through sexual education; and been bombarded, more recently, with anti-smoking, anti-drinking, safe sex and abstinence campaigns. So it’s not like they’re uneducated when it comes to these matters.
What it comes down to is a matter of invincibility. No one ever thinks it will happen to them. And when it does, even though they’ve engaged in risky behaviors, they’re shocked.
How can this be prevented?
Educational and awareness campaigns have been partially effective. College students are usually very aware of the risks of STDs and pregnancy, and the dangers of drunk driving, but their actions would prove otherwise.
Statistics show that although college students are knowledgeable, they have a high and increasing risk of contracting an STD. And more than one-third of all deaths for people ages 15 to 20 result from motor vehicle crashes, of which more than one-third are alcohol-related.
But spitting out statistics isn’t going to help either. After a lifetime of having stats thrown in their faces, the only thing that’s going to help is the realization that students are not invincible.
As time goes on things eventually start to hit closer to home. In high school it was that one girl’s older brother who got arrested for drunk driving, or a best friend’s older sister who got pregnant. But by the time students reach their 20s, that circle has shrunk. Now it’s their older brother, a classmate, their best friend . . . or themselves.
And those are the lessons they never wanted to learn. Because by the time someone is pregnant, infected, in jail or dead . . . it’s too late. And it CAN be you.
March 27, 2003