Despite the popular drinking culture found at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a new survey released Monday by the UW System shows binge drinking has decreased 8 percent in the past four years.

According to the Alcohol and Other Drug Assessment Survey, 51 percent of students said they engaged in binge drinking. The survey — taken biannually — found this year’s rate dropped from 54 percent in 2007 and 59 percent in 2005.

However, the lower number of binge drinkers this year may be because of a new definition of what “binge drinking” is, Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning Aaron Brower said.

Binge drinking used to be considered having five or more drinks in one sitting, whereas now it is consuming five or more drinks in two hours in the past two weeks.

The new survey also included just those students who have admitted to drinking. In the past, the survey also included those that did not, a report on the Board of Regents website said.

Even though the number of binge drinkers here at UW has not gone down, drinkers have been more responsible, Brower said.

“Our binge-rate numbers have stayed constant, though the harms associated with drinking — from academic problems, to assaults and batteries — have trended downward over the past five to six years,” Brower said in an e-mail to The Badger Herald. “I think that’s due primarily to the campus and community setting clearer standards/expectations for what’s acceptable, and then increasing enforcement when those standards/expectations are violated.”

The survey was given to 6,608 students, and random samples were taken from each four-year university in the state.

The survey also said 48 percent of students reported drinking before college, while 72 percent of students have drank since coming to college. Students also continue to overestimate the number of other students who are drinkers.

UW senior Mark Woulf, a member of the Campus Alcohol Task Force and Alcohol License Review Committee, said he also thinks the decrease is due to the new definition and it will take at least another two years with the new definition of binge drinking to be able to tell if it is really going down.

He does think, however, the university is making positive strides with alcohol awareness by increasing education for incoming freshmen during Student Orientation and Registration and videos for students new to University Housing.

“We are trying to make students aware of what the drinking culture is like and what the effects of alcohol for those who haven’t experienced alcohol growing up in high school,” Woulf said.

Woulf added he thinks the survey is good in that it sheds light on the issue of student drinking culture at UW and at the other state universities.

He said binge drinking has had such a negative connotation over the years that it has skewed what the problem actually is.

“Most students would tell you that they are responsible drinkers even if they fit the definition of binge drinking, so although the rates are high, the level of responsible drinking is higher than that,” Woulf said.