Small is part of a rapidly growing campus trend. At his school, 1,425 students have signed pledges this year to abstain from alcohol, tobacco and illicit drugs in their dorm rooms; more than 300 others were turned down for lack of space. At Michigan State, 1,600 students have chosen substance-free habitats this year. At Holy Cross College in Worcester, Mass., some 180 students live on substance-free corridors in Loyola Hall, and 30 more are on waiting lists.
The abstainers, while still a small proportion of the student body, are making noticeable inroads in campus life. (The minimum drinking age is now 21 in all 50 states, but enforcement of the law is often lax on college campuses-particularly in private rooms.) Some opt for substance-free housing for religious reasons; some are the children of alcoholics and some are trying to go straight themselves after overindulging in high school. Others have taken the health warnings about alcohol, drugs and tobacco to heart and prefer to live with others who feel the same way.
The programs vary from campus to campus. At the chemical-free “wellness house” recently opened at Boston University, students pledge not to drink or smoke in the brownstone, but they may indulge elsewhere–as long as they don’t come back drunk. Smoking is permitted at a small drug- and alcohol-free house at Tufts, originally begun for recovering alcoholics, on the ground that some found that smoking helped them stay off booze. Most of the programs aim at a wider audience-and offer social supports as well. Some Brandeis students have formed a group called TREND (Turning Recreational Excitement in New Directions), dedicated to a social life without alcohol or other drugs. The Center for Alcohol Education at Colorado State University helps abstainers plan school-funded parties with bars that feature “mocktails”; this fall the center showed movies like “The Rose” and “The Doors,” which portray the disastrous results of excess.
College officials insist that the choice to live substance-free must be the student’s own, and not imposed by an overzealous parent or anyone else. Because of high self-motivation, violators are rare, and the punishment is simple: exile. But the students are not required to live ascetic lives. In BU’s wellness house, for example, while some residents take transcendental-meditation workshops and eat health food, plenty of others can stay up all night drinking coffee and crunching Doritos. And in Cedric Small’s dorm at U. Michigan, raucous music booms from stereos. But all in all, he says, “This is a nice little civilized group.”