Adam Planche is a general studies senior who also is the booking manager at Spanish Moon, a local bar. As a bar employee, Planche sees LSU’s amount of binge drinking firsthand.
“It’s the good ole boys,” Planche said. “We’re raised in a culture like that. Their grandfathers and fathers did it, it’s a right of passage.”
In a recent study released by Meichun Kuo and Henry Wecsler, researchers with the Harvard School of Public Health, binge drinking on college campuses is lower at schools with greater diversity.
According to the study, universities with more women, minority and older students have lower rates of binge drinking.
Planche said binge drinking has nothing to do with cultural diversity.
Nancy Mathews, director of the Campus-Community Coalition for Change, said part of the CCCC’s mission is to combat underage binge drinking.
“We want LSU students to realize there are laws and ordinances to adhere to,” Mathews said. “By reducing the number of drinks per occasion they are less likely to have harmful things happen.”
The study said the cultural subgroup with the biggest risk of binge drinking is white, underage males.
“Any time you have a group of students like one another living together you can have binge drinking,” Mathews said. “White, male college students drink considerably more alcohol than any other subgroup.”
Mathews said she thinks an increase in minority students would decrease LSU’s binge drinking rate.
“Students generally associate with people like themselves,” Mathews said. “As the campus becomes more diverse, the more choices students have on who to socialize with.”
The CCCC is financed by the A Matter of Degree program, which has established similar organizations on other campuses around the country such as the University of Nebraska and Florida State University.
Mathews also said that of the other universities participating in the program, LSU has one of the lowest binge drinking rates, and increasing diversity is not the only answer to decreasing that number.
“It would be helpful, but it’s not the only way around the statistic,” Mathews said. “We have to realize that it’s an issue of who people associate with and the choices they make.”
Andy Benoit, director of recruitment for the University, said the recruitment office is dedicated to recruiting minorities to campus.
“We believe in diversity and diverse recruiting,” Benoit said. “I can’t really speculate on whether or not diversity affects binge drinking.”
Some students thought the study was inaccurate because of the predominate southern drinking culture.
“It think it’s just a question of where we live,” said Philup Montet, a biological sciences freshman. “It’s a result of how we grew up.”
Montet said he didn’t think increasing diversity at the University would drastically cut binge drinking, but it would help students feel less pressured to binge drink.
“Everyone has their beliefs on drinking,” Montet said. “Hopefully, people would incorporate each other’s beliefs with their own. But some people are going to do it regardless.”
Josh Girod, a biological sciences freshman, said he thought the study was accurate because white males tend to compete for who can drink the most.
Girod, who is in a fraternity, said the first thing that came to mind when thinking about a group of white males living together was a fraternity.
“Fraternities are different because they have a reputation and standards to uphold,” Girod said. “Any group of random guys are going to drink. It’s easy for kids to get alcohol. It all depends on who they have to answer to, we can lose our chapter if we mess up.”
Victor Felts, assistant Dean of Students and director of Greek Affairs, said binge drinking within the Greek system is not balanced along racial lines.
“If you look at the predominately white groups, their emphasis is more on social,” Felts said. “The African-American groups are more about service.”
Felts said most behaviors are learned in high school and carry on to college.
“The problem with binge drinking could stem from South Louisiana culture,” Felts said. “You can’t compare us to other schools because of that culture.”