While America tries to prohibit it's youth from consuming alcohol while at college, the British don't seem to mind at all. The results seem to show that perhaps they may be on to something.

Little to Bar British Students >From Bellying Up; Universities
Unconcerned Over Undergraduate Drinking
The Washington Post, July 11, 2001,
T.R. Reid, Washington Post Foreign Service

OXFORD, England -- Even at $ 53 a person, the tickets for Oxford
University's annual Fire Ball were all snapped up on the first day of
sale. And why not? The price included four bands, 20 DJs, magicians,

students were unsteady on their feet, and some
weren't on their feet at all. But university officials recorded the Fire Ball as
"uneventful," and the students who ran it agreed.

    "One of my human statues got really drunk and couldn't stand still," said
James Pattison, a third-year Oxford student who spent months planning
the dance, held late last year. "So I'm not paying him. But most people here are
18 or 19, some are 20 or 21. By that age, people know how to drink."

    In the United States, educators and legislators regularly announce new
incentives and/or crack-downs to stop college students from drinking, as
President Bush's twin daughters recently discovered at a college bar in Texas.
"We see drinking as a huge issue, especially with the underage," said Monica
Cloud of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators.

    But in Britain and much of Western Europe, student drinking is
treated not as a problem but as a normal part of student life. "We treat our
students as adults who run their own lives," explained Laurence Goldman, Oxford's assessor
(roughly, dean of students). "It's not our place to ban drinking. . . .It would
likely have the wrong results if we tried."

    Student balls promising "unlimited alcohol" are commonplace here, Goldman
said. "There's often a great deal of merriment. But the number of
problems that the university proctors [campus police] have had to deal with

is very, very small."

    Alcohol-fueled merriment at Oxford dates back at least to the 12th century,
when a group of divinity students composed the oldest college drinking song,
"Gaudeamus Igitur" -- a ditty of such undying appeal that a few
revelers at this year's Fire Ball broke into a rowdy chorus of it about 1:30 a.m.

    By that time, many of the students had clearly consumed more than enough
liquor. Others remained thirsty. "There's a half-hour to go, and
they've run out of [Bacardi] Breezers," moaned Fiona Walton, 18, an economics major
whose black gown was offset by silvery glitter glued to her bare back. "What do
they think we paid the money for?"

    Several ball-goers said they felt sympathy for their fellow students in
America. "I spent a summer at [the University of] New Mexico," said pre-law
student Ned Greel, 20. "The whole alcohol scene there is so naff
[ugly]. They drink as much as we do, but they have to go off in their cars where
nobody can see them."

    U.S. exchange students at the Fire Ball generally agreed. "Of course
students drink in America," said Jack Linahan, a junior at Williams College.
"It's much saner here. It's sanctioned. Nobody has to hide from the
administration."

    A major distinction, U.S. and British educators agree, is the legal
situation. Every U.S. state now bans drinking until the age of 21. European
countries set the drinking age at 18 or younger.

    Beyond that, though, there's a fundamental difference in attitude. Americans
seem quicker than people on this side of the Atlantic to describe a drinking
situation as a problem.

    British universities say they rarely encounter "binge drinking" among
students, while the phenomenon is considered widespread in the United States.
This is not because British students drink less; it's a difference of
definition. The U.S. standard for "binge drinking," established by the Harvard
School of Public Health, is "five drinks in a row for men or four for
women." In Britain, it's defined as "staying drunk for several days at a time."

    The tough attitude toward student drinking in the United States has been
driven in part by pressure from the interest group Mothers Against Drunk
Driving, or MADD. MADD has a sister organization in Britain, Campaign Against
Drink-Driving, or CADD. But CADD is far more accepting of teen-drinking
than its U.S. counterpart.

    "We think 18 is old enough to drink," says Maria Cape, who joined
CADD when her daughter was killed by a drunken adult driver. "Most young people
are really very responsible about drinking and driving."

    At Oxford, "nobody drives home from the Fire Ball," said Pattison, the
student who ran the dance. "You'd have to be crazy to drive after a
night like this. Oxford students aren't that crazy."

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