LEAVING home for college is a rite of passage that is more like a dream come true for many university-age students every year.

Many go off to find themselves, others vow to excel in their studies while others simply plan to indulge in popular on-campus social practices – chief among them, alcohol consumption and regular partying.

But every year, for some, this ‘newfound freedom’ comes at a costly price. Owing to the excessive drinking and partying, their academic studies are compromised, and sadly others lose their lives – leaving relatives and close friends to mourn. Many of us will not forget the road accident in October that claimed the lives of two promising pre-university students in Petersfield, Westmoreland and three UWI Mona students, who perished in a vehicular accident on the Heroes’ Weekend.

Police reports are that at about 3:30 am on Monday, October 20, Andy Lopez, 20, Shericka Wright, 20, and Jemile Fong-Chung, 22, were killed when the vehicle they were travelling in, slammed into the Rio Nuevo Bridge in St Mary. They were returning from an event called Truck Fest in St Mary. At UWI, Lopez (the driver) held the position of cultural and entertainment affairs chairperson (CEAC) on the UWI Guild and studied history. Fong-Chung studied sociology, while Wright was enrolled in the Distance Education Programme.

The motor vehicle in which the victims (and one survivor) were travelling, was driving along the Rio Nuevo main road when the car reportedly drifted too much to the right and collided with a Toyota Corolla. The car then slammed into the bridge and burst into flames. All three died on the spot. The lone survivor (Fong-Chung’s brother) was rescued by passers-by and taken to the St Ann’s Bay Hospital, where he was treated for several burns and released a day later.

Several theories have been tossed around about what caused Fong-Chung to lose control of his vehicle. Many believe the crash was alcohol-related. Michael Clarke, student services manager at Mona’s Chancellor Hall (where Fong-Chung and Lopez were residents), told the Sunday Observer that while intoxication has not been confirmed as the cause of the crash, the entire UWI community was still in mourning. Seven students from Chancellor Hall have died tragically (some in road accidents) since 2001.

“It’s a devastating experience. They were brilliant young men and we were very close. We are deeply saddened and we continue to ask our students to exercise more control and maturity in how they enjoy themselves,” said Clarke. “It is popularly known that the younger ones drive more recklessly on the roads. And we want them to have more respect for life, exercise more intelligence, patience and control.”

In the United States, college students driving under the influence of alcohol and crashing is a regular occurrence. In fact, based on findings from a 2003 Harvard University study in the United States, among college students ages 18-24 from 1998 to 2001, alcohol-related unintentional injury deaths increased from nearly 1,600 to more than 1,700 – an increase of six per cent per college population. The proportion of 18-24-year-old college students who reported driving under the influence of alcohol increased from 26.5 to 31.4 per cent, an increase from 2.3 million students to 2.8 million.

Between 2000-2001, more than 500,000 American college students were unintentionally injured because of drinking, and more than 600,000 were hit/assaulted by another drinking student. For the same period, of the eight million college students in the United States, more than two million drove under the influence of alcohol and over three million rode with a drinking driver.

Here in Jamaica, data from the 2007-8 Jamaica Health and Lifestyle Survey shows that the current use of alcohol among Jamaicans is highest among persons 15-24 and 25-34 years (64 per cent). The same age band accounts for the most marijuana use. According to Superintendent Fred Hibbert, head of the traffic and highway division of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), most fatal accidents on our roads involve persons between 20 and 40 years – the major factors being speeding and driving under the influence.

“It is definitely cause for concern because the majority of these accidents involve people, especially males, who are supposed to be part of the workforce,” Hibbert told the Sunday Observer.

Meanwhile, Clarke argues that college drinking is “a phenomenon across the world, whereby students indulge in the practice as a social norm”.

“It’s not something that we support here. We have programmes where we discuss such issues and point out the disadvantages to the students,” he said. But when asked if he believes on-campus activities like regular ‘drink-ups’ on ‘the party halls’ like Chancellor, Irvine and Taylor, affects the academic performance of participating students, Clarke said he has seen little evidence of this.

“The UWI [Mona] campus is a community and students try to find ways to combat stress and exam pressures. But activities like drink-ups are now being discouraged, and I’ve seen a significant reduction in the practice on our hall,” noted Clarke, who has been student services manager at Chancellor Hall for eight years.

Dr Grace Kelly, head of the Counselling Unit at the Manchester-based Northern Caribbean University (NCU), says student practices like binge drinking and drug use should not be tolerated on our college campuses.

“I know that for some students it affects their academic performance negatively but you have some who say it enhances their performance. But that is not something I support. It should not be tolerated because it’s an unhealthy practice,” Dr Kelly emphasised. “It is not tolerated at NCU so I have not come across any such practice but I am not saying it does not happen here, but we do not subscribe to that kind of behaviour here. That’s the bottom line at NCU.”

Over at the Mico University College, student body president Nina Dixon said the strict monitoring of social events has helped in curtailing alcohol consumption at the teacher-training institution, while 19-year-old Nicholas Spence, student body president at the Montego Bay Community College, said only a minority of students are engaged in heavy partying and drinking.

Ava Simpson, lecturer in the Faculty of Health and Applied Science at the University of Technology (UTech), told the Sunday Observer in a phone interview that alcohol consumption can have both short and long-term effects on students.

“The higher the alcohol consumption, the more it could affect them later in life. They may not show any signs now but symptoms will definitely appear later on. It is definitely not acceptable because the short-term implications for students could involve oversleeping, non-attendance at lectures and ultimately low grades,” Simpson said.

In the meantime, medical research has indicated that youths who drink excessively – even before they enter college – are more likely to experience alcohol-related problems in their later years. What’s more, students who regularly drink to the point of intoxication are more likely to experience alcohol-dependence throughout college. They are also likely to engage in frequent heavy drinking, to drive after drinking or to be injured under the influence of alcohol.

As such, Simpson argues that increased screening, counselling programmes and comprehensive interventions to reduce college drinking in Jamaica and the associated harm to students and others should be pursued.

“I think on-campus counselling centres are very important. Presently, I know counselling is offered on our college campuses but people are still falling through the cracks. I think identification of the high-risk students from early is important because peer pressure can influence those who were not high-risk to begin with,” the lecturer noted.

Dr Kelly also believes such efforts – screening and counselling strategies – can prove efficient among college populations.

“I think it’s extremely important that colleges also utilise the services of organisations like RISE Life to help with counselling because not all our colleges have the adequate resources. With all that’s happening in our society nowadays, we have to do all we can to help our students.”