[media-credit name=’Derek Montgomery’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]Binge-drinking continues to be an object of criticized debate in the city of Madison, as the Policy, Alternatives, Community and Education (PACE) group met yesterday for its second quarterly meeting to discuss alcohol abuse on the University of Wisconsin campus and the effect on students and the city.

Madison police and community members as well as University of Wisconsin Dean of Students Luoluo Hong attended the meeting.

Discussion focused around yearly binge-drinking statistics, with modest dialogue on the future of Halloween.

An overall decrease in binge-drinking and related negative effects has been evident over the past few years, according to Lisa Carol, data evaluator for the PACE project.

“These studies are longitudinal that we’ve been doing yearly, and the last three years of information has come back with encouraging trends,” Carol said.

This study, called the Study of College Health Behaviors, also incorporates work done by the Harvard School of Public Health on alcohol consumption.

The statistics are created variables, according to Carol, looking at the drinking rates for males and females. The project defines binge-drinking as four drinks in a row for a female and five drinks in a row for a male.

These statistics are down from previous years where, in 2001, 66 percent of students reported binge-drinking in the two weeks before being surveyed, 62 percent in 2003 and 52 percent in 2004, according to Carol.

UW sophomore Ali Butler said four drinks in a row for a female does not accurately reflect what she depicts as “binge-drinking.”

“On this campus, yes, there are a lot of students binge-drinking,” Butler said. “But I think the description changes per person.”

Despite different student views regarding the practice, there have been other decreasing alcohol-related activities.

Carol added the statistics also show a decrease in the amount of unplanned sexual activity on campus. Victims of unwanted sexual advance are also down almost 10 percent from 2001, which Carol said “is exciting.”

Reports also indicated fewer students are having hangovers.

Sudi Ceglarek, PACE project director, agreed the decreasing unplanned sexual activities is a positive effect.

According to Ceglarek, PACE can only be partially responsible for decreasing binge-drinking on campus. She added the nature of incoming students to UW might be changing due to university efforts to limit drinking.

UW Chancellor John Wiley’s letter to incoming freshmen regarding drinking on campus may be affecting the night scene, Ceglarek added.

“But you also want to look at community efforts independent of what the UW is doing,” Ceglarek said. “All of that has an impact and a lot of things are happening together … PACE is one of the variables in the equation.”

The project also looks at statistics where students have experienced five or more negative effects of alcohol. These effects include drinking and driving, missing class, getting behind in schoolwork, doing something a student regrets, forgetting where a student was or what they did, arguing with friends, engaging in unplanned sexual activity and not using protection, damaging property, getting into trouble with campus or local police, receiving injuries or requiring medical treatment for alcohol overdose.

In 2001, 28 percent of students surveyed said they experienced five or more of these effects, while in 2003 only 26 percent and in 2004 only 20 percent reported such effects.

“There’s a significant drop there,” Carol said.

The project’s funding will expire in August 2006, and the nearing end was a discussion. Members of the group said the city and campus need to work together to monitor policies regarding the negative effects of drinking.

“How do you sustain efforts that are going on to address [drinking] issues?” Ceglarek questioned. “We are just beginning to have the conversations about how to sustain campus and community communication.”