After a night at the bars in uptown Oxford, Ohio, first-year Miami University student Erica Buschick returned back to her dorm room with the assistance of her roommate and a taxi driver. The next morning on Friday, Jan. 20, 911 received a call from Buschick’s roommate who hysterically announced her friend’s death, later determined to be caused by high-risk alcohol consumption.

“It has been kind of a tough week,” Miami University student and writer of Buschick’s obituary Ceili Doyle ‘16 said. “I had to talk to all of her friends for part of the article. Her death is definitely reflective of the binge drinking culture here, which is kind of out of hand.”

Although the death was tragic news, alcohol consumption and binge drinking is a widespread and common activity at Miami University, Doyle said.

“Miami’s culture is a bit over the top,” she said. “Freshman year it is easy for things to get out of hand for a lot of people because it is such a learning curve with all of the new freedom. It’s not just parties at night, but there is a lot of day drinking on the weekends and it’s just really heavy.”

The 18 year-old bar entrance age and the high percentage of students in Greek Life are two large factors that contribute to the high alcohol consumption that takes place at Miami University, Doyle said. Additionally, there are several holidays celebrated at the University that encourages under aged drinking, including “Green Beer Day” around St. Patrick’s Day, where drinking is an all day affair.

Outside of Miami University, many college students around the country partake in alcohol consumption and binge drinking. According to the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 1,825 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die from binge drinking and alcohol-related unintentional injuries, including motor-vehicle crashes, each year. That being said, 20 percent of college students meet the criteria of “Alcohol Use Disorder”, or AUD.

It is not only the students of Miami University who experience heavy drinking on campus, but University of Michigan—Ann Arbor student Sammi Cohen ‘15 also explains how many other universities share this culture.

“I would absolutely describe Michigan as a work hard play hard atmosphere,” Cohen said. “Although we do not drink as often as many others do at other universities, we go crazy when we do have time to drink.”

There has not been any recent fatal incidents involving alcohol at Michigan, but many kids are hospitalized after drinking too much, Cohen said. Major contributors to the drinking culture at the University of Michigan are the prevalent Greek Life community and popular football tailgates, where some students drink from seven in the morning until after the game has ended.

As far as precautionary measures go, there are many regulations put on students to help control drinking parties, Cohen said.

“One precaution that [the Panhellenic for Greek Life] has made is to ensure that there are bottles of water at every fraternity during tailgate season,” she said. “Also, each fraternity needs to register every party and the Social Responsibility Committee, or SRC, comes to make sure all necessary rules are being followed.”

Like Michigan, Miami University is also taking many precautionary measures to ensure that another fatal alcohol-related incident does not occur, Doyle said.

“As far as I know, you must take an alcohol awareness class after the first time you are caught drinking under age,” she said.

In addition, Miami University has a “Good Samaritan” policy, which allows intoxicated students to bring their extremely intoxicated friends to necessary medical help without getting in trouble by the school, Doyle said.

Although there are several precautionary measures to help protect students from alcohol abuse, Doyle thinks that there could be more to ensure the safety of the student body.

“It is not hard to get your hands on alcohol and that part is out of the University’s hands,” she said. “I do think our school can do more to promote how these alcohol related situations can get out of hand.”

At Miami and universities all around the country, any student is capable of making mistakes that can lead them to alcohol poisoning or death, Doyle said.

“It’s the same for all colleges,” she said. “You kind of feel like you are in a bubble and nothing bad can really happen. You have all of this freedom that you never had before and one night can go badly, whether it’s with different types of alcohol or certain substances that you were never exposed to before. You can end up overdoing it and not knowing until it’s