Caucasians drink five times more alcohol than any other ethnic group at Dartmouth, according to a survey about campus alcohol use that focused on ethnic/racial differentiation.
The survey, conducted last spring by the Health Resources Department, also found males consume an average of 11.3 drinks per week while females consume an average of 3.7.
Binge drinking -- defined as the consumption of five or more drinks in one sitting -- has decreased. Although men are still 1.6 times more likely than women to engage in binge drinking (53 percent to 32 percent) female binge drinking dropped by more than one third (53 percent to 32 percent) since a similar survey in 1992.
This year's survey, which over-sampled minority students to insure accuracy across ethnic lines, found that Caucasian students are 50 percent more likely to drink alcohol in a fraternity or sorority than African-American students.
"These students are obviously having a productive social life without drinking. We need to find out what these groups are doing differently and teach other students who are drinking why these students aren't," Health Resources Director Janet Sims said.
John Turco, director of College Health Services, offered explanations for the discrepancy between the drinking rates.
"Some would say it is a result of minority students saying 'we've worked way too hard to get here to blow it,'" Turco said. "Others would say the minority students just want to be different."
Sims suggested the difference is because some ethnic groups on campus might not "identify with the culture here."
Both men's and women's drinking has declined since the 1992 survey but men, on average, still consume more than three times as many drinks per week as women.
Sims said she believes Dartmouth's tradition is a factor in creating this difference. "Men were here first and protect their drinking by normalizing it. They say, 'this is our identity and this is how we do it here,'" she said.
Native American students, who had the lowest frequency of binge drinking, were reported as most likely to have sexual intercourse because of alcohol use.
"Sex is our number one negative consequence as a result of drinking," Sims said. "The problem is not that students have sex, the problem is when it otherwise wouldn't have happened if alcohol hadn't been involved."
Sims said the statistics must be used to "gear education to groups at higher risk or try to do more research to find out why these groups are abusing alcohol."
Turco said he feels specialization is the key to successful alcohol education.
The results of the survey, which was filled out by 494 Dartmouth students, were weighted to provide a picture of the whole campus with a four-point margin of error.
The survey was presented to the Board of Trustees Friday as part of a discussion on alcohol.
