Last month I decided it was time to have a detailed talk about alcohol and marijuana. I invited a couple of friends whose kids are also heading off to college. I brought a bottle of vodka and two bottles of wine. They brought several kinds of beer and a hard seltzer. The teens didn’t look as eager as we were, but they did look mildly interested.

There’s a reason the legal drinking age is 21 years — alcohol isn’t good for an adolescent brain and it doesn’t contribute in a positive way to academic life. But knowing something about this stuff and how to behave around it is wise. We talked about percent alcohol and proof and alcohol by volume (ABV), and we had our teens look for that information on those bottles and cans. We talked about how alcohol impacts a body and discussed our thoughts around alcohol. And we showed how the volume in a single serving of each type of alcohol is quite different. Most importantly, we spoke about difficult decisions, the risks of impaired judgment due to alcohol and marijuana, and the importance of keeping an eye on friends.

We won’t be with our students as they move out into this world of more freedom of decision and independence, but we can let them know that we’re aware they’ll be facing difficult decisions. Have non-judgmental conversations about substance use and abuse. Arm them with information and let them ask you questions. Challenge ideas that alcohol and marijuana use and abuse are rites of passage for college students — please. At St. Olaf, we have a policy of no alcohol on campus and we believe it’s important to educate — we’re not shy about having conversations with students about substance use and abuse.

“Helpful?” I later asked him. “Yeah” he shrugged. I’ll take that.

Roz Eaton
Dean of Students

P.S. While we won’t have you on campus for parent orientation activities, we’re providing parent orientation online. Associate Dean for First Year Students and Facebook parent group darling, Tim Schroer, will be hosting a live Zoom call called “Questions and Advice” on Wednesday, July 22nd at 6:00 P.M. Central Daylight Time. We ask that you register here for the event in order to have access to it. If you’re not able to join, please know that we’ll record it and make it available to you on the New Student Orientation site.