Can America Rebrand College From "Partying" to "Purpose"?

What images come to mind when you hear the word “college”? For many, these images consist of scenes from movies and media outlets depicting frat parties, keg parties, and copious amounts of drinking at sporting events. Indeed, college is often conceptualized as a place of acceptable experimentation with substance use and drinking to excess. The myriad of negative consequences associated with substance use on college campuses, however, are not often depicted in the media or discussed in public arenas.

To some, the current social norms regarding substance use on college campuses are accepted as “just the way it is,” and the hefty profits acquired by bars and liquor stores in college towns serve as evidence of the demand. Others, however, are seeking to rebrand college from a setting known for heavy drinking and partying to a vehicle for achieving one’s professional aspirations. But is it possible to make such a dramatic change to the connotations of the college experience in the U.S.?

The Truth About Collegiate Substance Use

According to the Monitoring the Future Survey, in the past year, 40.9 percent of college students (aged 19-22) used cannabis, 80.5 percent used alcohol, 26.4 percent vaped nicotine, 15.6 percent used cigarettes, 10.7 percent used an illicit drug other than cannabis, 5 percent used hallucinogens, and 4.8 percent used amphetamines (Patrick et al., 2023). Importantly, the survey data revealed that drinking alcohol (past year and past 30-day use) was higher among college students compared to non-college young adults, and 27.7 percent of college students engaged in binge drinking (i.e., five or more drinks in one sitting) in the past two weeks (Patrick et al., 2023).

In light of these prevalence rates, the extent of negative consequences associated with collegiate substance use should not be surprising. The latest data from the National College Health Assessment indicate that among students who drank alcohol in the past year, 19.4 percent did something they later regretted, 10.8 percent had unprotected sex, 10.8 percent experienced a blackout, 6.8 percent experienced a physical injury, and 2.6 percent had suicidal ideation while drinking (American College Health Association [ACHA], 2023). Additionally, 11.1 percent of collegiate undergraduate women experienced incapacitated sexual assault since starting college (which refers to sexual assault when victims are unable to give consent, such as after using substances; Krebs et al., 2009). These negative consequences are in addition to known adverse outcomes of substance use, including illness, injury, and death.

Contributing Factors

Given these concerning trends, one must ask, what contributes to the high substance use rates in college settings? Potential contributing factors include: student expectations related to substance use (e.g., “this is what you are supposed to do in college”), underestimating the potential harm of substance use, overestimating the number of students who use substances, high availability and access to alcohol and other drugs, lack of parental monitoring, collegiate activities involving alcohol (e.g., tailgating), peer influence, Greek life, and academic pressure (Welsh et al., 2019). In many ways, substance use is engrained into the very fabric of the college experience, yet hope exists that this pattern may be changing.

Enter Collegiate Recovery Communities

The nature of substance use on college campuses can be a major barrier for young adults seeking higher education who are also in recovery from a substance use disorder. In fact, college has been referred to as an “abstinence-hostile environment” (Cleveland et al., 2007). Collegiate Recovery Communities (CRC) or Collegiate Recovery Programs (CRP) seek to create safe havens for college students in recovery within the pro-substance use context of college.

Rather than embracing the falsehood that college students are too young to be in recovery from addiction, let us consider the fact that 2.5 percent of college students reported being in recovery from alcohol and other drug addiction (ACHA, 2023). Furthermore, in 2022, 8.7 percent of adolescents (12-17 years old) had a substance use disorder in the past year (SAMHSA, 2023). For individuals looking for a college where they can maintain abstinence while earning their degree, the presence of CRC or CRP on campus is paramount.

According to the Association of Recovery in Higher Education (ARHE), there are currently 151 CRPs in the United States (2024). The characteristics of these programs vary from institution to institution, but typically include sober housing options, on-campus peer support group meetings (e.g., Alcoholics Anonymous), sober events and activities, physical spaces for students in recovery to gather and work, professional counseling services, and opportunities for peer support to maintain abstinence.

Rather than CRP/CRC being the exception in collegiate spaces, what if they were the norm? Could it be possible to take a page from these programs and reconstruct college settings to mirror the tenets of recovery and make abstinence, rather than excessive use, the expectation of the college experience?

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Potential Interventions

There are many suggested intervention strategies to address collegiate substance use at both individual and environmental levels (NIAAA, 2019). These strategies include educational programs and skills training, norms clarification, early identification, restricting happy hour promotions and keg sales, restricting the number of alcohol establishments in a given area, hosting alcohol-free events, requiring Friday morning classes, and increasing adverse consequences for serving alcohol to underaged individuals (NIAAA, 2019). But one intervention strategy that stands out is emphasizing that college is a way to reach academic/professional goals—and this function of college should be at the forefront of all depictions, discussions, and portrayals.

CRP/CRCs are doing this exceptionally well. When students enroll in a college to join a CRC, the function of college is not to facilitate excessive drinking, partying, or experimentation with drugs of abuse—instead, these students are attending college with the explicit purpose of pursuing a degree that will help them meet their professional goals. For these students, college is perceived as a vehicle to help them grow into their professional purpose rather than a place for partying and substance use.

The structure and function of CRP/CRCs have rebranded college for students in recovery—is it possible for this rebranding to spread to the entire collegiate community? If college administrators and gatekeepers could take a page from the CRC playbook, they may learn how to rebrand the American college experience from that of partying to a place of purpose and professional advancement.