For many students entering college, the first few months on campus provide them the opportunity to explore newfound personal freedom. Choices that previously had been made for them by parents and school officials are now theirs to make. As a result, they are free to choose whether to attend class or skip and sleep in. They are also free to choose whether to study in the evening or, instead, play a video game, watch TV, or socialize with friends on various social networking Web sites such as Facebook, MySpace, or Twitter. They can choose to stay up as late as they wish and not have a parent tell them “it’s time for bed” or sleep until noon without a parent telling them “it’s time to get up.” They can explore their own sexuality by dating or “hooking up” with peers. Perhaps most important, students are free to experiment with alcohol or recreational drugs such as marijuana – both of which are readily available on today’s college campuses.

Drinking alcohol is both one of the earliest and most important choices new college students face as they transition into life on campus. According to some observers, both the proportion of students who drink and the amount of alcohol they consume is clear evidence that a core “party culture” – a set of beliefs and customs – exists at many postsecondary institutions. In turn, exposure to the party culture quickly shapes students’ attitudes toward, not to mention their behavior involving, the consumption of alcohol. For example, the collegiate party culture is alleged to approve of drinking not only after class in the evenings and on the weekends but before class as well. The party culture also condones students’ drinking alcohol before, during, and after sporting events, especially football and basketball games, and is actively supported by multimillion-dollar marketing campaigns sponsored by the beer, wine, and distilled spirits industry. In this party culture, drinking plays a pervasive role in routine on- and off-campus social gatherings by students.