The message, “less is normal” seems to be reducing the amount of alcohol college students are drinking. Drug and alcohol counselor Kim Dude has been telling students that at M.U. and says the results are showing up in their annual surveys. Freshman binge drinking has dropped by 10% over the last two years in Columbia. On a comparable public campus they surveyed, binge drinking went up 25%. Dude says the average M.U. student has up to four drinks per week, but thinks the average is much higher. Her office has spent the last two years on a publicity campaign, using things like T-shirts, frisbees, and posters to “normalize” moderate drinking.
