Should Mom and Dad Be Told About Underage Drinking?
By James C. Garland

When a student drinks illegally, should a college tell Mom and Dad?

Until recently, parental notification wasn’t even a question on most campuses. In 1998, however, Congress gave universities and colleges the green light to notify parents any time a student under 21 violates drug or alcohol laws.

Now that fears of violating a federal law protecting students' privacy are gone, campuses are debating the wisdom of parental notification.

Not surprisingly, many students see parental notification as interference in their rights to independence.

Some college officials agree that ratting on students to their parents may work against promoting a sense of responsibility.

"If I'm 18 years old and someone says 'I'm going to call your mother on you' I'm not sure how I would respond to that, as opposed to someone saying, 'Look, I think you have a problem, let's see if we could deal with it,’'' a University of Virginia official said recently in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The same article quoted a parent who doesn't want to be called if her daughter is caught with a beer. "She's almost 21, almost an adult. I think it's for her to handle."

At Miami University, we've looked carefully at the pros and cons and come down on the side of notification.

Beginning autumn semester, parents are now notified by letter if their children are found guilty of violating laws or university alcohol and drug rules.

Reaction on campus to the new policy is mixed. Despite criticism that this new practice is interfering with a student's rite of passage, I strongly believe that we are doing the right thing for the right reasons.

The vast majority of students at Miami do not engage in high-risk drinking. This majority, however, are greatly affected by those few who do. In fact, 75 percent of all Miami disciplinary actions--excluding noise and visitation violations--are alcohol related.

Our goal is to create a campus environment where students are empowered to confront the destructiveness of alcohol-abusing peers.

The damage such students do to the fabric of campus life has been described succinctly by a University of Delaware official as the three Vs: vandalism, violence and vomit.

There are signs of progress. A Harvard study of students on 116 campuses in 39 states found an increase from 1993 to 1997 in students who do not drink at all.

During the same period there also was a slight drop in the percentage of students who binge drink.

Unfortunately, that drop has been offset by the increased intensity of drinking among binge drinkers. While only one in five students nationally are "frequent bingers," this minority hurts themselves and others.

I believe the solution to alcohol abuse on our campuses must begin with universities facing up to the challenge.

Colleges need strong, vigorously enforced sanctions.

Furthermore, responsible students must be encouraged to make their opinions known. All students should understand that the majority of their classmates don't abuse alcohol, and that doing so isn't a sign of maturity. Colleges should also provide social opportunities that don't revolve around drinking.

But mostly, universities need to promote personal responsibility and good decision making.

Our strongest partners in this effort are parents. I love telling parents that their child made the dean's list. I don't ever want to notify them that their child has been airlifted to a trauma center because of alcohol poisoning.

My hope is that involving parents at the first sign of a drinking problem will prevent that from happening.

(James C. Garland is president of Miami University and co-chairman of the statewide Binge Drinking Prevention Initiative, sponsored by the Ohio Parents for Drug Free Youth.)

Used with permission of the author.

Last Update: October 14, 1999