November 9, 1998
KU Provost David Shulenburger made the announcement after reviewing a survey of KU students that showed many abuse alcohol illegally and that alcohol consumption has a detrimental effect on academic performance.
Shulenburger said he and other Lawrence campus officials would immediately take the following action:
-- Meet with members of KU fraternities to encourage those houses to become alcohol free. Already, seven KU fraternities have announced plans to be alcohol-free by 2000. All KU sororities are alcohol free;
-- Create zero-tolerance enforcement of existing no-alcohol policies in place in university residence and scholarship halls;
-- Apply for a Kansas Health Foundation grant to enhance alcohol education programs on campus. Through its student health center and Division of Student Affairs, KU already operates several education programs. The grant will be used to supplement those efforts;
-- Discontinue sales of cereal malt beverages on the KU campus. Currently, a small amount of cereal malt beverages are sold at a campus bowling alley.
Monday evening, Kathleen McCluskey-Fawcett, associate provost for academic services, shared the results of an early-October student survey with the members of a joint City of Lawrence, Haskell Indian Nations University and KU task force. The survey was conducted in early October on behalf of the KU administration and asked about 900 KU students about their experiences with alcohol and attitudes about its use. Haskell also surveyed its students.
"We suspected that some KU students were abusing alcohol. That was the reason for forming the alcohol task force earlier this year," McCluskey-Fawcett said. "The data simply confirm our suspicions and makes the work of the task force even more important."
About 58 percent of those students surveyed said they had recently participated in binge drinking (five or more drinks in one sitting in the previous two weeks). On average, KU students said they consumed 7.4 drinks per week. A drink is a serving of wine, hard liquor or beer. The most popular source of alcohol was private parties.
While KU administrators believe those numbers are consistent with those at similar size universities, they remain concerned.
"The connection between alcohol use and poor academic performance -- as well as a number of other problems -- cannot be refuted," Shulenburger said. "While most universities are concerned about this problem, I want KU to lead in helping solve it. The fact remains that drinking alcohol for most KU undergraduate students is against the law."
More than half of KU undergraduates are under 21, the legal drinking age in Kansas.
Of the students who took the survey, students who drank less had higher grades. In a related statistic, 41 percent of the students surveyed said they had missed a class at KU as a consequence of drinking.
Shulenburger chairs the Lawrence-Haskell-KU task force which includes KU and Haskell students and administrators, City of Lawrence representatives, and representatives from the Lawrence community including the public school district, bar owners and alcohol abuse prevention experts. By mid-December, the task force will make recommendations to KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway, Haskell President Bob Martin and Lawrence Mayor Marty Kennedy. Those recommendations will be in addition to the actions announced today by KU, Shulenburger said.
Story by Tom Hutton, (785) 864-8866