Any one of the following items point to serious abuse: family members objecting to subject's drinking, professional advice about drinking, job or school troubles due to drinking, accident while driving intoxicated, arrest, or physical fight. (Fleming).
A report from the University of Richmond told a story about a female college freshman who experienced a horrible situation after a night of drinking. It said that she remembered how hard it was to leave behind her family and friends, she remembered having to face the fact that she was a freshman again and how all she wanted was to be well-liked and to fit-in but one thing she does not remember at all is the night she was raped by two freshman males in a room full of people. Her second week of school she willingly attended a party where she proceeded to take many shots of vodka until she got to the point that she was going in and out of consciousness. As a result of her binge drinking this girl did not discover until weeks later that these boys took turns having sex with her, put a lampshade on her head, and wrote all over her face, all while in front of an audience.
Certain college organizations such as fraternities and sororities can also influence binge-drinking. Drinking behaviors areoften learned in the process of socialization. There are three types of influences, all which are fundamentals of these organizations, that include: cultural background, stage of socialization, and peer group influence. (Mayer 30) For example, one fraternity at the highly academically credited Massachusetts Institute of Technology was suspended and lost its house forever. A freshman pledge from the 1997 class fell into an alcohol-induced coma and died after reportedly being hazed at a social event. This example shows that situations like this occur on all campuses, not just campuses with a reputation of being a "party school." (Sales 2) This freshman pledge merely wanted to be accepted by his older brothers in a struggle to prove that he could drink as much as them.
