For Parents
First Year Students
The Drinking Culture at Notre Dame
If You Have Concerns about Your Student
If you are a parent or guardian visiting this site, you are probably doing so to get answers to certain questions. These questions maybe about the drinking culture at Notre Dame, what your son/daughter should expect when they arrive at Notre Dame, or maybe your son or daughter is a current student and you are concerned that there could be problems. Our hope is that this website can assist you with any of these questions.
First Year Students
As a parent or guardian of a Notre Dame student, it is important to discuss issues surrounding first year students and reasons they may choose to drink. The first six weeks are crucial and the potential exists for excessive alcohol consumption. Listed are topic areas for discussion with your son or daughter.
- Make sure boundaries are clear about your expectations. Remember students and parents/guardians can have a very different perspective of what moderate or social drinking is.
- Your student needs to understand that Notre Dame does follow Indiana State Law and that it is illegal to drink as a minor, college student or not. Sometimes students think that somehow being at college negates the fact that they are not 21.
- For some students, being away from home, they want to experience the freedom from parental rules and experiment with drinking. This developmental stage is quite normal. Discuss personal development and decision making with regard to the new freedom that comes from living away from home.
- First year students are looking to find a new social group. Discuss with your college student the importance of attending activities on campus during the weekend that do not involve attending parties where alcohol will be served. Make sure to tell your student that they can develop healthy friendships that are not based solely on the party social scene – and, in fact, they probably have developed many friendships prior to coming to college that were not at all related to drinking or other alcohol related activities. If your student believes there is nothing else to do on the weekends they should visit the Student Activities website. Encourage him or her to look at opportunities to volunteer, to participate in club sports, campus ministry or any of the other campus organizations. Remember there are always numerous entertainment experiences on the weekend.
- As a parent, it is important to realize that students find a social group that best fits how they feel about themselves. If the group they develop seems to drink a lot, your student could be struggling with esteem issues, adjustments to school,or caught up in college myths. It is also possible that your student was drinking, or had an established drinking pattern prior to arriving at Notre Dame.
- Discuss with your son or daughter that alcohol can be potentially fatal when used in excess. Drinking games, taking shots, using beer bongs are dangerous practices and can lead to a student drinking much more alcohol than they are aware of.
- First year females are particularly vulnerable to acquaintance rape. Because alcohol can lower inhibitions and the affects of alcohol on men and women are very different, women can be much more intoxicated than their male counterparts which can lead to unwanted situations. As a woman, your daughter should never try to go drink for drink with male acquaintances. Have this conversation with your daughter. Alcohol is the number one date rape drug.
- Family history is significant. Tolerance to alcohol can be 90% hereditary. It is time to reveal this history. If you have a family history or suspect there is a family history, talk about this with your student. What many students report that have a family history, even if they never drank prior to coming to Notre Dame, is that they struggle with setting a limit – if they start they can’t stop.
- Myths and advertisements can set students up to believe that drinking is an expected rite of passage. The reality is that the majority of students are responsible on most occasions. Have your student step back and observe how many students are not intoxicated or chugging before he or she makes decisions about social behavior. The loud, obnoxious drinkers give the impression everyone is intoxicated because they are the ones noticed. Social responsible drinkers are not noticed at parties. Heavy drinkers tend to be the students that are encouraging others to abuse alcohol as they want to believe their drinking is normal.
Alcohol will always be available, encourage your son or daughter to make decisions to protect future plans of going abroad, getting into graduate schools, the Peace Corp. or other future endeavors. Most students do not think ahead and instead live in the moment, or believe it won’t happen to them. Developing a drinking pattern is a process. The more time that passes without “getting caught” leads to the increased belief that it won’t happen. It is a roll of the dice and every opportunity creates the possibility something bad can happen.
The Drinking Culture at Notre Dame
Statistically the drinking culture at Notre Dame is not much different than most colleges across the nation. Notre Dame is however one of the few universities that does allow a limited amount of alcohol in the dorms for students of the age of 21. All campus sponsored activities are alcohol free providing numerous growth opportunities for students.
Every year the University of Notre Dame through the Core Institute, surveys our students to evaluate drinking issues on campus. The reality is that the majority of our students do drink responsibly on most occasions and approximately 20% of our students do not drink at all. Notre Dame has wonderful events and traditions that encourage spirit and community; however students can get caught up in the celebrations and may tend to over do it. These situations unfortunately can put students at risk for arrest, a trip to the hospital due to injury or alcohol poisoning, and can contribute to violations of the alcohol policy. As a parent/guardian, encourage your student/s to understand the alcohol policy and Indiana law, and to make decisions that will keep them safe.
If You Have Concerns about Your Student
Parents tend to only know about 10% of what their student is doing. As much as we want to believe we know what is going on, students want to keep privacy to create a sense of independence. If you have concerns, do not ignore them. As a parent explore your concerns, however most students are over 18 and are considered adults. Know that not all information about your student’s college experience will be available to you.
- First, express concern with your college student. Be very specific about behaviors that concern you.
- Second, speak with hall staff – either the AR, or Rector – to check out concerns.
- Call professional staff at the University Counseling Center or the Office of Alcohol and Drug Education. Although we cannot speak directly about your student, we may be able to help with some guidelines.
- Encourage your student to seek options through the University Counseling Center or the Office of Alcohol and Drug Education.
Office of Alcohol and Drug Education 574-631-7970
University Counseling Center 574-631-7336