Shirell Battle and Evan Lindsey could not be more different people. Battle, a sophomore fashion design major spends most days in the Marist Steele Plant, diligently working on creative projects with the company of her housemate, Julia. Lindsey, on the other hand, is a senior accounting student from Connecticut, who spends most days up early to finish his homework and when the weather is nice, on the green playing spikeball. However, while the paths of these two students have never crossed, they face one commonality: they are two students on Marist Campus that do not drink.
“Initially, most of my friends for the most part didn't drink in high school” Lindsey mentioned, “So it wasn't like alcohol was really like a thing”. Lindsey - while introduced to the freedom of experimenting with alcohol at the beginning of his freshmen year - faced hesitancy with the substance despite his peers’ excitement. “Obviously [at] the start of college people tend to like go wild or whatever [...] but then seeing how people get when they're really drunk ... honestly, it just wasn't something that interested me”.
According to studies done on college binge drinking, Lindsey’s sentiment is highly abnormal. The National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism states, “According to a national survey, almost 60 percent of college students ages 18–22 drank alcohol in the past month, and almost 2 out of 3 of them engaged in binge drinking during that same timeframe”. However, Lindsey has always been confident in his ability to still remain a part of the college social scene without incorporating alcohol: “I'm not gonna, like pretend to do it or like it [...]. People may [think] you have to pretend to be drunk or whatever, but I'm not gonna lie about it”
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“Watching drunk people is kind of fun.” Shirrell Battle explained, giddish. Spending most of her freshman year navigating Zoom calls and figuring out hybrid classes, as the campus social scene seemed to revive again during the fall of her sophomore year, she was ready for the fun part of her college years to start.
Unlike her peers, who anxiously order fake ID’s in anticipation of getting into the local bars since their reopening, the thought of getting drunk on a Saturday night did not impress Battle. “A lot of the time alcohol [is] used as an easier outlet to communicate with others” she says, “like it's easier when you're drinking than sober”. Ultimately, she states that the motive behind the drinking culture is to socialize, something that she confidently can do on her own.
However, perhaps there is an even scarier motive behind the college drinking scene, especially on Marist campus. While both Lindsey and Battle - in two completely different stages of their college experience - have distinct reasoning for not partaking in the drinking culture, there was a frightening similarity. They both agreed that while the Marist social scene revolves around alcohol consumption, that stems from a mindset of reliance. Students seem to gravitate towards alcohol to have fun.
“When I tell people it's kind of weird because people assume that, like I'm on Accutane”
“When I tell people it's kind of weird because people assume that, like I'm on Accutane” Battle mentions, “ Like, I remember my freshman year, I told them [that] didn't drink and they're like, ‘Oh, is it because like, you're on Accutane or you take medication?’ Like, they think there's a reason behind it. And then when I told them, ‘No, I just don't drink’, they just didn't believe me.”
Shirell Battle (left) with her peer Gavin Cooper in the Marist College Steele Plant
Credit: Shirell Battle
Battle shares a similar sentiment to Lindsey. When he discusses that he does not partake in drinking with his peers, he also is met with quite a bizarre reaction. “Well, a lot of times people will be like, ‘Oh, I respect that' Like, people say they respect it and [...] I don't really know what they mean by that.” This dependency to alcohol, especially with young adults, is not uncommon and can have some incredibly detrimental consequences. According to Alchohol.org, “Annually, 696,000 college students are assaulted by another student who has been drinking” and “One in four students reports academic problems associated with drinking too much, leading to lower grades overall”.
“I don't really know anyone who like, just doesn't drink period [...]. Off the top of my head I can't really list one.”
An even scarier on-campus fact is that both Lindsey and Battle barely know any of their peers who also do not drink. “I think I’ve maybe talked with like, one or two other people, but throughout all of Marist who do the same thing [...] so like, it's definitely not common” Lindsey mentioned. Battle adds, “I don't really know anyone who like, just doesn't drink period [...]. Off the top of my head I can't really list one.”
So, in a community surrounded by drinking, where does the future lie for the social culture of Marist? For the two non-drinkers, they would change this mindset. They are proof that this theory of “drinking to have fun” is not necessary. “'I’ll still go to parties. I'll still go to the bars. And like, I feel like when you hear people say, `Oh, I don't drink’ a lot of people hear that [and] think like, ‘Oh, they don't go out at all.” Lindsey mentions. Of course, this is not the case.
Battle explains that not drinking is something she takes pride in, and does not alter her college experience at all, “I don't really think it hinders my experience. I still have the same amount of fun.” On campus, she hopes that the more students can find the ability to create their own fun without alcohol like she does, “I’d kind of [like to] change the idea like we have to drink to have fun because I feel like that's a lot of people's motive [...] and it's like well, you can have just as much fun sober.”
Despite not partaking in drinking, Evan Lindsey (far right) does not feel excluded from partaking in typical college outings, such as brunch with his friends
Credit: Evan Lindsey
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