The Silent Majority

 by Lana Burke
 published on Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Sam Nalven / STATE PRESS MAGAZINE

Sam Nalven / STATE PRESS MAGAZINE

Psychology junior Aimee Vondrak decided early on not to drink until she was 21 and then only in moderation. She is the creator of the Facebook group “I go to ASU and I’m not drunk!!!!”

Sam Nalven / STATE PRESS MAGAZINE

Political science senior Forrest Cutrer says he has more time for thinking and hobbies since he stopped drinking in April 2007.

Sitting in class on a Monday, it's hard not to overhear dozens of stories about how "totally wasted" someone was over the weekend.

Outside class, there's the sharing of pictures that prove just how drunk they really were. And in between those, there's the barrage of "clever" sayings, like, "We finish our drinks because there are sober kids in Ethiopia." Sometimes it's hard to believe students aren't drunk 12 hours out of the day.

But buried beneath the alcoholic one-upping is the shocking truth.

"Against popular myth, if you really look at what the norms are, you'll find that the majority of students don't drink, or if they drink, it's very occasionally," Dr. Allan Markus, director of Campus Health Service at the Health and Wellness Center says.

Twenty-one percent of participating students said they had never used alcohol in a 2006 National College Health Assessment conducted by the American College Health Association.

But the drinking habits of peers were highly overestimated by the more than 23,000 survey participants at college campuses, including ASU, nationwide. Students said they believed that only 4 percent of their peers had never used alcohol, when in reality a reported 21 percent had never drank — a 17 percent difference from the perceived amount of abstainers.

Students also reported believing almost 40 percent of their peers drank on a daily basis, while the actual number of students who drank daily was less than one percent.

Part of what perpetuates misconceptions about drinking is the high-profile nature of student heavy drinkers, Markus says. He says those who drink heavily are more likely to get in trouble with the law or miss school.

"The squeaky wheel gets the grease," Markus says. "And I think it's very similar here. Those that aren't drinking aren't going to stand out. You're not going to recognize the silent majority."

In Moderation We Trust

Aimee Vondrak, a psychology junior, is part of the silent majority.

Vondrak, who recently turned 21, decided when she was a child that she wasn't going to drink until she was of legal age, and then only in moderation.

She attributes this decision partly to seeing adults in her life that drank.

"I didn't understand when I was younger that adult people were allowed to act like that," Vondrak says.

"I could see the effects of them having one drink versus many drinks," Vondrak says. "All of a sudden, they were unable to control their actions and what they said and they had to apologize later. It was very frustrating, and I thought to myself, 'Well, I can learn from that example.' "

Vondrak, who works as a community assistant on campus, says she tries to act in a way that other students can look up to.

"I've been raised by people I respect, saying, 'You stand up for what you believe in and you don't waver on that,' " Vondrak says.

Vondrak is proud of her stance of drinking and aspires to be a good influence for those she comes into contact with. She says she hopes her actions encourage others to make similar choices.

"I try to uphold some kind of example so people can look to me and say, 'Oh, you know what, not everybody is doing it,' " she says.

Vondrak says she's used to people jumping to the conclusion that she doesn't drink because she's a Christian. While partly true, Vondrak says it's not the fundamental reason.

"I don't think a lot of people get that that it's not about trying to be different, it's not just because God told me to or something like that," Vondrak says. "There are so many different factors involved."

Group Therapy

In the fall of 2006, Vondrak started the Facebook group "I Go to ASU and I'm Not Drunk!!!!"

Vondrak started the group because she says she noticed people on Facebook who had many friends were typically those who participated in drinking heavily.

"I thought to myself, 'There are probably a lot of people on campus that feel like coming to college means they have a responsibility to drink underage, and it's not true,' " Vondrak says.

Vondrak strongly believes that alcohol should only be used in moderation by those of legal age and bases her Facebook group around that belief. The group's description lists those points, along with an objection to binge drinking, as the prerequisites for group membership.

Vondrak's group had 54 members as of Feb. 24, four times as large as "I Don't Drink," the next largest of the four ASU Facebook groups promoting alcohol abstinence.

While their numbers are small, Vondrak isn't disheartened.

"I'm sure there are more [students who don't drink]," Vondrak says. "From what I've seen, there are just as many students who party every weekend as there are students who choose not to. It's just hard to get word out on a Facebook group."

But Vondrak may soon have a step up on the other Facebook groups. She plans to form an actual university-sponsored club, tentatively titled "ASU Students Against the Illegal Consumption and Abuse of Alcohol."

Plans to start the club were derailed when the Memorial Union caught fire, shutting down the third-floor offices. Vondrak says she plans to start the process for the club as soon as possible.

"With a bigger presence on campus, it could really take off," Vondrak says.

Vondrak's main hope for the club is to make students realize that drinking every night isn't the only way to have a good time or to be socially accepted in college.

"The college prerequisite isn't, 'Hey, do you drink? 'Cause that's what we do,' " Vondrak says. "No, it's not like that."

Sobering Times

"I realized I was kind of a big douche bag when I was drunk," political science senior Forrest Cutrer says of his decision to quit drinking.

"[Drinking] was getting in the way of schoolwork. I was drinking everyday. I started to not like myself," Cutrer says. "I showed up to class drunk, I was showing up to work hung over and it just sucked. I hated living life hung over."

Cutrer, who began drinking when he was 15 years old, decided to take a break from drinking in April of 2007, five months after he turned 21.

Everyone has at least once woken up with a rough hangover and claims they're never going to drink again, Cutrer says, but most people don't follow through.

"It was just like that, except I actually stopped," Cutrer says of his own rough hangover and declaration to stop drinking.

Cutrer hasn't completely ruled out drinking in his future, but says he'll never return to his former habit of binge drinking like he did 10 months ago.

"I play it day-by-day," Cutrer says. "Initially, I said, 'I'm not drinking for a long time.' It just turned into, 'I'm not drinking for a while.' "

For now, Cutrer is enjoying his sobriety and says he is in better mental and physical shape than he was when he was drinking.

"Lack of drinking has forced me to do other stuff with my time," Cutrer says. "The four or five hours a day I would spend drinking I now have to do something else with.

"I got a hobby," Cutrer says. "Exercising and bicycles."

Cutrer isn't alone in his abstinence from alcohol, but says he is in the minority of his friends, only three of whom don't drink.

Cutrer says feeling like the only sober one in a crowd is sometimes hard.

But the feeling is nothing new for Cutrer. Up until recently, Cutrer worked at Casey Moore's Oyster House, a popular spot in the Tempe nightlife.

He says working at the bar actually helped keep him sober.

"I wanted to drink significantly less because I was around so many drunk people," Cutrer says. "I just saw all the people who left stuff at the bar and I heard stories of people making incredibly unwise decisions romantically when they drank."

But Cutrer is quick to point out he's not against people drinking — he just likes being sober.

"I'm not quite anti-drinking or drugs," Cutrer says. "I'm just pro-sobriety."

It's weird when you're drunk for so long — sobriety is like a new drug," Cutrer says. "It's like 'Hey, this is new, this is really fun.' It's better for my brain, too. I get a lot of thinking time done."

The Norm

While drinking may not be as prevalent among college students as commonly perceived, Markus still stresses the importance of on-campus education on the subject of student drinking.

"Alcohol education is always an important issue to make sure students make adult choices," Markus says.

Auto accidents cause the most deaths within the college-age group, accounting for 30 percent of all deaths, followed by homicide and suicide, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. All three of those causes are often alcohol-related by having impaired judgment, Markus says.

Markus recommends students know the difference between problem drinking and a healthy amount of consumption.

"People who are drinking, whether it's binging on the weekends or drinking 6- or 12-packs of beer — those are problem drinkers," Markus says.

Since the problem drinkers are at a statistically higher risk for injury, Markus says he encourages them to seek help before they get hurt. He also cautions other students to not falsely assume that kind of drinking is average.

"Recognize the social norm is that many people don't drink," Markus says. "Or, if they do drink, the majority of people drink very occasionally.

"That is the norm, and it's OK to be that norm."

— lana.burke@asu.edu