Three years ago, Health Services conducted a survey of students’ alcohol consumption, drug use, and sex.
The results surprised everyone.
In fact, the results were so surprising that when we published them in The Channels, every student who read them responded with disbelief and cynicism.
Students generally thought that their friends were drinking three times as much as they themselves were admitting to. Marijuana use showed a similar trend – students believed that almost everyone was smoking pot everyday, but when asked about their own usuage, most said they never touched the stuff.
A new survey will be administered this semester, and hopes are that these results will actually be a fair representation of student health on campus.
Based on the old survey, we could conclude that students are not as unhealthy as everyone thinks. But perception is usually based on reality, and there is no smoke without a fire.
So how did the survey go so wrong?
For a start, tests were conducted in the classroom, with professors present. Perhaps students aren’t entirely comfortable admitting to unprotected sex or excessive drug use in front of their teachers. Do you want your English teacher to know that you spent the weekend popping pills and having anal sex?
One of the most unlikely statistics we published from the last survey was about students who admitted to daily alcohol ‘usage.’ A measly 1.5 percent admitted to drinking alcohol every day.
Many students, and people in general, go home, and have a glass of wine with dinner, or a can of beer when they sit down to watch the game. That counts as everyday alcohol usage.
This statistic is especially interesting, since the same study showed that students believed 48 percent of their classmates were everyday drinkers.
When asked how many drinks were consumed by the average student at a party, ten drinks was the highest chosen. However, over 50 percent of students answered that they had never had more than five drinks in a sitting in the last two weeks.
Students think they drink ten drinks at a party, but are not admitting to drinking over five in the last two weeks? Something is not adding up, and since this was a professionally- conducted survey, it has to be the honesty of the answers.
These tests are supposed to show City College as a whole, and student health as a whole. If we all say we are drinking less than five beers once a week, but believe all other students are drinking 10 drinks, six nights a week, someone is not telling the truth.
Odds are that students are simply not admitting to their own party habits. If you have one alcoholic beverage a day, then you are a daily drinker. If you smoke marijuana more than once a week, that is heavy usage of an illegal drug.
Look outside the exam halls when midterms come around and tell me only five percent of students smoke. And then, if you see a researcher, point them in the direction of some real students living in the real world.