R.I. colleges turn to education to fight out-of-control drinking

Journal photo illustration / Kris Craig

Some of the thousands of fake IDs confiscated by
bartenders, bouncers and waitstaff, and turned in
to the Newport police.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- To tackle the problem of out-of-control drinking by college students -- exemplified by all-you-can-drink parties that brought a 2009 crackdown in Providence's Elmhurst and complaints that prompted Narragansett to affix orange stickers to partiers' properties -- the state's nine four-year colleges are doing what they do best.

Educating.

In this case, they're educating students about drinking responsibly.

For example:

• Providence College is working "to interrupt the assumptions about what [students] think college partying is going to be," a counselor says.
• Brown University has developed an online tutorial for incoming students and brings in a comic storyteller to deliver alcohol-survival advice to a freshman assembly.
• And Rhode Island College, along with four other schools in the state, requires every freshman to pass AlcoholEDU, an interactive online course.