College Clips

By Amy Oslica, Staff Writer
Nov. 2, 2007

High-risk habits develop from college climate

In a town of case races, beer pong and flip cup, when one beer can turn into a pitcher, binge drinking can make social drinking competitive.

The National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism defines binge drinking as "a pattern of drinking that brings a person's blood alcohol concentration to .08 percent or above. This typically happens when men consume more than four drinks and women consume more than three drinks in about two hours."

Many college students might not always realize that they are binge drinking.

"Oftentimes students find themselves in high-risk situations when they don't mean to," said Leslie McNeill, acting director of health education at Miami University. "After four deaths in four years (at Miami), you can figure out what's low-risk for me. Some people, for whatever reason, need to figure out how to stay safer."

— The Miami Student (Miami University)

Birth control pill for men forthcoming

Almost five decades since the female birth control pill hit the market, men might soon have more reliable contraceptive options than condoms or blind trust, according to the Male Contraception Information Project, a nonprofit organization.

Presentations at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development's Future of Male Contraception Conference in September showed successful results for a variety of contraceptive drugs.

Researchers at Columbia University have found that extremely low levels of vitamin A create infertility in men. They also found a drug that interferes with vitamin A receptors in the testes.

Junior Trisha Tompkins said she thinks male birth control is a great idea despite doubts.

"It shows that people are starting to realize it shouldn't just be a woman's responsibility to make sure unwanted pregnancy doesn't happen," she said.

— The Oklahoma Daily

(University of Oklahoma)

Duke University students join growing

home-brewing phenomenon

Beer brew chefs Ben Haynes and Steve Worrell are certainly not running a bootleg operation out of their two-bedroom apartment.

After four months of brewing and with 10 five-gallon batches of beer down the hatch, the two Duke seniors' apartment is literally littered with reused six-packs, bottle caps and other home-brewing supplies. The two students are averaging two batches every two weeks, and brewing has filtered into their everyday lifestyle.

"We thought, 'We like beer. We like the taste. We like to try different beers,'" Wilkerson said. "We've always been interested in trying it out. Our only issue was to figure out how to do it."

All in all, Wilkerson and Slattery end up making about 50 beers per batch, which costs around $30.

But the expense is not their top concern. It's all about the experience of physically crafting something together and creating a perfect beer recipe.

"Our first batch of beer was brewed from the kit's instruction and ingredients," Wilkerson said. "We haven't used one since."

— The Chronicle (Duke University)

— Compiled from U-Wire reports

by staff writer Amy OslicaHigh-risk habits develop from college climate