Binge: What Your College Student Won't Tell You Paperback - 2006 - 1st Edition

Summary

First line

On a crisp November Monday evening just past six-thirty, I arrived at the large, rambling cedar-shingled building on the outskirts of the University of California's Berkeley campus.

From the jacket flap

After thirty years as a correspondent and editor for Time magazine, Barrett Seaman embarked on an independent two-year investigation to uncover the real story of college life today. He especially wanted to see how-- and why-- undergraduate living has changed since he was at college in the tumultuous late 1960s. Seaman was surprised by the realities of student life on today's campuses-- and is concerned by the implications they hold for the future.

In this major new book, Seaman reveals what every parent, student, and educator needs to know about what really goes on after classes let out-- in dorm rooms late at night, in fraternity and sorority houses, and outside the quads. Seaman spent time with students in their dorms at twelve highly regarded and diverse colleges and universities across North America-- Harvard, Dartmouth, Middlebury, Hamilton, the University of Virginia, Duke, Indiana University- Bloomington, the University of Wisconsin- Madison, the University of California-Berkeley, Stanford, Pomona, and Canada's McGill University. During his two years of research, he immersed himself in the lives of the students, often living in their dorms, dining with them, speaking with them on their own terms, and listening to them express their thoughts and feelings.

Portraying a campus culture in which today's best and brightest students grapple with far more than academic challenges, Binge conveys the unprecedented stresses on campus today as well as the sense of isolation students feel from the "real world" and often from each other. The book reveals the complexities of an environment in which romantic relationships and sexual relations are often casualand ambiguous, alcohol and drug use are widespread and dangerously unchecked, anxiety and depression are common, and boundaries along class and racial lines are too often permeated with tension. He exposes the increasing aloofness of professors and the stereotypes that student athletes struggle against and sometimes reinforce. While sharing revealing interviews and the often dramatic stories of those he encountered, Seaman explores some difficult questions: Just how hard are students studying? What are students' real reasons for going to college today? What's the "right" drinking age? How can parents help-- or hurt-- their child's chances for success? Why have students come to expect less from their professors? Has diversity worked on campus? Who is really in charge-- the administration, professors, residential advisors, or the students themselves?

Despite the disturbing trends, Seaman finds reasons for optimism. Today's students, although troubled by the increasing uncertainties of life today, are smart, resilient, and eager to take their place in the adult world-- if only they were given the chance. And Seaman offers provocative and well-informed suggestions for improving the undergraduate experience. Sometimes alarming, always fascinating, and ultimately hopeful, Binge is an extraordinary investigative work that lays bare the realities of higher education today.