Drinking alcohol has always been associated with the college lifestyle. Hillsborough Community College has a large majority of students who are under the age of 21, which in turn could make underage drinking a large problem.
"I have smelled it on the students," said D. Magwood, lead officer of security at HCC's Ybor Campus. Magwood said that she has never witnessed an incident of a student actually drinking alcohol while on campus, but is aware of its presence. "Sometimes it affects attendance and I've seen them sleeping on desks," said Magwood. Magwood said although there may be a few students who come to campus intoxicated, it has never caused any sort of a violence issue; it's more of a general attendance issue. "With an average age of HCC students being in the 26-28 range, underage drinking would most likely be a small percentage of our student body," said Dr. Shawn Robinson, President of HCC's Ybor Campus.
Although some faculty members believe underage drinking may be an issue amongst students, Dr. Robinson sees it from a different perspective.
"I would think that underage drinking is not as big of an issue as it would be at a four-year college with residence halls and Greek housing," said Robinson. "We are primarily a commuter college with students tending to live at home with their parents," said Robinson. He added that drinking heavily and binge-drinking could be associated with poor attendance, lack of preparation for exams, and the inability to build meaningful connections to the college. Robinson said he does not see a direct correlation between the illegal consumption of alcohol and low grade point averages, but said it could be a factor. "I think the bigger issue is the abuse of alcohol by college students in general," said Robinson.
Robinson said he has known individuals who have had alcohol abuse problems that have stemmed from before the age of 21, "some received DUIs, others ended up involved in dysfunctional and destructive relationships." "I was in [jail] at 19 years old when I got arrested for a DUI," said Justin Cary, 21, a student at the Ybor Campus. Cary said he originally attended Florida State University and had to move back home to Brandon because of slipping grades due to drinking. When Cary and his friends were in their first year of college, they would drink alcohol heavily. "When I was 18 or 19, I was pretty stupid. I would just drink and go drive around, I felt like I was invincible and now that I'm older I look at it a lot differently," said Cary. Cary said he does believe underage drinking could be an issue at HCC but believes it's more of an issue at four year universities. Robinson said that the HCC Ybor Campus does provide assistance via counselors and advisors for those struggling with a variety of issues, including addiction to alcohol.
"Often, this assistance is in the form of a referral to an outside agency that has the expertise and resources to assist a student with substance abuse problems," said Robinson.
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