A letter from a reader: Learning about alcohol

November 12, 2007:

In regards to the AlcoholEdu program (From the Editor, Sept. 26), I still vividly remember a freshman friend and classmate across the corridor in Holder Hall who managed to consume a fifth of vodka in, what we were later told, less than an hour at a party a few doors down. He managed to make his way back to his room and climb up onto the upper bunk before passing out. We later found him unconscious with delirium tremors (DT's) and called the infirmary to find out what we should be looking for and doing. Their advice was spot on and he did end up sleeping it off, though to this day he has no recollection of how he got an enormous shiner that night.

My personal view is that Princeton, with 99 percent of its underclassmen living on campus, is an exceptionally safe environment to learn about alcohol and its effects, whether by educational programs or (possibly bitter) experience. I also have read that recent studies found that raising the legal drinking age from 18 to 21 apparently had only a phantom effect that took credit for alcohol education and increased drunk driving penalties prior to the changeover.

STEWART A. LEVIN '75
Centennial, Colo.

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