Colleges are employing new, innovative, and aggressive strategies in trying to solve the problem of collegiate binge drinking.  Linked not only to low grades, physical injuries and mental health issues, excessive drinking is involved in half of sexual assault cases and over 1800 student deaths annually, according to Jonathan Gibralter, Frostburg State University’s president.  NPR’s Jennifer Ludden talks to Gibralter and others to discuss new ways of tackling the problem.

Frostburg’s solutions include allowing campus, as well as city, officers to do off-campus patrols; offering more classes on Friday mornings to discourage heavy Thursday night drinking; paying for bar staff training to identify fake ID’s; offering alcohol-free parties at the student center with expensive door prizes; a marketing campaign exposing the less glamorous side of drinking; and at a base level, trying to change the drinking culture.