Go out any Friday or Saturday night in San Luis Obispo and you’ll see its presence. Beer bottles strewn across lawns and gutters. Police officers handing out tickets to loud partygoers. People stumbling across Higuera Street from one bar to the next. Alcohol is everywhere in San Luis Obispo, a town that’s home to two colleges.
It seems many students drink as a social activity. Attending parties with drinking is not only shown, but celebrated in many movies and television shows. Movies like “Animal House” and songs like Asher Roth’s “I Love College” reinforce the notion that drinking and partying are key aspects of a college student’s experience.
Many Cal Poly students who drink agree that it’s just a way of life; partying on Hathaway Avenue as a freshman, throwing parties after moving off campus and going downtown once you turn 21 can be central events in students’ social lives.
Statistically, the beginning of each academic school year is the highest point of partying in San Luis Obispo. According to Captain Dan Blanke of the San Luis Obispo Police Department, the San Luis Obispo Police Department beefs up its staff to accommodate partiers from the Thursday and Friday of Week of Welcome into the first few weeks of the quarter. This includes more overtime shifts as well as working with University Police to help patrol the northern end of town next to campus.
The number of parties and noise complaints tend to drop off further into each quarter, especially over academic holidays like winter and summer break when students typically go home. The beginning of the winter and spring quarters and holidays like Halloween and St. Patrick’s Day can also be busy, but the first month of school has the most alcohol and noise violations of the year.
Blanke added that the police department hasn’t yet had to enforce the Social Host Ordinance that started May 8, but that the real test will be at the beginning of fall quarter. The ordinance holds party hosts legally and fiscally responsible for underage drinking at their home. Any host of a party where three or more minors are present, and at least one minor is drinking alcohol, will be charged with committing a misdemeanor and could face jail time and a $300 fine.
According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, the average American starts drinking on a regular basis at 15.9-years old. Binge drinking is defined as the consumption of five or more alcoholic beverages in a single sitting.
The Cal Poly Health Center received a grant six years ago that has helped fund research aimed at locating local spots where students do the most binge drinking and partying. Each fall quarter, they send out surveys to between 1,000 and 2,000 students to answer questions about their drinking habits.
The survey has shown that most students do the majority of “dangerous drinking” at apartment parties near campus and during greek-sponsored parties. It also shows that underaged students tend to binge drink and report vomiting and hangovers more than those who are over 21.
Dr. Marty Bragg, the Director of Health and Counseling at the Cal Poly Health Center, said the center has been working closely with San Luis Obispo Police Deparment, the California Highway Patrol, Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center and other public health and safety organizations. Now that they have a better idea of where people are partying excessively, the grant group plans on targeting trouble areas and educating hosts on how to have a safer party.
Beginning in the fall, the group plans on creating informative material to educate party hosts on how to keep them and their guests safe and out of trouble. There will also be a series of D.U.I. check points located around the city, targeting practices to stop the selling of alcohol to minors, and even party patrolling.
“It will be very public,” Bragg said. “We’re not trying to run a sting operation or anything like that. We just want to help students be safer.”
When asked what the police department is doing, Blanke said that there has recently been a large influx of people walking around with open containers or party cups in public. However, officers are encouraged to be nice to students who are walking around from party to party at night. Some can even be seen walking around among the students conversing while others can be seen a block away writing a citation.
“We want to show them that we’re not just a bunch of jerks,” he said. “We’re not going to kid ourselves and think that students don’t party. We want you to have fun but we also can’t just tolerate public disregard for that law.”
In another effort to keep drinkers safe, Sierra Vista Hospital recently changed their policies towards patients admitted for alcohol poisoning. The practice of dropping off a sick patient at the emergency room instead of waiting with him or her is a common one done by friends afraid of getting in trouble. This fear can also deter drinkers from seeking the help they need.
However, after several meetings between the two organizations, Sierra Vista representatives and law enforcement officials agreed that hospital officials do not have to notify the police when underaged people come in seeking help for alcohol poisoning. Although the police said that they would like this information to help prevent sexual assault, they decided that it is better to reassure students that they can go to the hospital when they need medical help, regardless of age.
“We’re not condoning underaged alcohol abuse,” Blanke said. “But the most important thing is that people are comfortable getting the help they need.”
Not everyone at Cal Poly engages in heavy drinking, or even drinking at all. Students like business administration junior Jessie Becker and biology sophomore Natalie Folsom said drinking isn’t a big part of their college experience.
“It just doesn’t appeal to me,” Becker said. “I can have fun not drinking and not having to worry about the consequences of it the next day.”
In regards to peer pressure, Becker and Folsom agree that Cal Poly students are fairly open to the idea of not drinking. “There are actually a lot of people who think it’s cool that I don’t drink,” Folsom said.
The infamous 21st birthday celebration often involves bar-hopping, but Folsom said she hasn’t put much thought into it. “Drinking doesn’t appeal to me too much now,” she said. “I don’t really think that will change just because I’m 21.”
However, Becker thinks that one’s 21st birthday might be worth celebrating appropriately. “I think it would be kind of cool to go to a sports bar and watch a game and maybe have a beer,” she said. “But I’m still not going to go out and get plastered.”