Drinking hurts--from the confused tumble down the stairs, to a painful death from liver damage. Still, 43 percent of college students "binge drink," according to an Oct. 24 New York Times report.

Binge drinking means four drinks in a sitting for women, five for men--a rate and frequency that has made headlines in recent years.

The recent discovery of this high rate of drinking at colleges, coupled with several recent alcohol-related deaths on campuses around the country, have sparked colleges nationwide to reconsider, and in most cases step up their alcohol policies and enforcement measures.

Students are more aware than ever of the potential risks associated with drinking. But it seems that at Harvard, at least, students have not changed their behavior despite being well-informed.

According to H. Westley Clark, director of the center for substance abuse treatment, a federal government program, this generation of college students is "under no greater or lesser risk" of falling prey to the risks of drinking.

"Today's college students are more health conscious, but they are more bombarded by marketing and media influences," Clark says.

"People have become more health literate," says UHS Director David S. Rosenthal '59. "They want to be more productive, live longer, be healthy. They know that alcohol inhibits these."

But at the same time, Rosenthal says "many people see binge drinking as a rite of college. Afterwards, and many even during college, turn to healthy living."