Fredonia makes “druggiest colleges” list

 Last week Facebook erupted with chatter letting everyone who did not already know that Fredonia was ranked number 10 among the nation's "druggiest colleges," according to The Daily Beast.

The Daily Beast is an online publication in connection with Newsweek, after a merger in February 2011, that is "dedicated to breaking news and sharp commentary." Their website features original material combined with links to other news sources.

In the findings of the "Druggiest Colleges in U.S.: Colorado, Denison, Dartmouth, Kenyon, More" The Beast referenced other websites used to compile their findings. Among these were CollegeProwler.com, the Department of Education and The U.S. Department of Human Services.

CollegeProwler is a resource for students. The website compiles answers to student surveys based on various aspects of college student life. Popular categories include Academics, Athletics, Drug Safety, Night Life and Local Atmosphere. According to CollegeProwler.com SUNY Fredonia is tops when it comes to the categories of "Guys," "Girls," and "Nightlife" and not ranked so high when it comes to "Academics," "Athletics" and "Campus Housing," earning a B-, C+ and C+, respectively. For those of us who actually attend, some might beg to differ. While they call themselves "the most comprehensive college resource on the web," the truth is that most anyone can review a college or university just by saying that they attend the university.

The Leader experimented with this and signed up for the website; the review that one staff member wrote was posted on the website within minutes. There does not seem to be a review process and it is purely opinion based. We've learned our lesson: citing non-scientific sources impresses no one.

The Daily Beast then "considered on-campus arrests for drug-law violations at each school, with 2010 data from the U.S. Department of Education also accounting for 40 percent of the final ranking. We calculated a drug-arrests-per-capita metric for each school, based on the Department of Education's student-enrollment numbers."

These total findings must be addressed and looked at for what they do, which is categorize all universities as existing under the same conditions. This system, while looking at arrests proportionally, cannot be considered accurate. Students and their various habits - illegal or not, vary from year to year and even more if the turn over in a four year period is considered. This can be seen even through The Daily Beast as Fredonia failed to make the list of "druggiest colleges" in the year 2010. Reports from university police departments must also be considered. Again, this is a proportional estimate, but not one to be taken seriously; it is impossible to think that every college campus scenario is the same, which is what The Beast does.

Finally, the surrounding environment was taken into account for the remaining 20 percent of the ranking. This seems unfair, as students we are taught to act as individuals, and all throughout our educational careers to say no to drugs, just because an area surrounding a university might have a high percentage of drug use or high availability does not mean we're all doing it.

College is a time for experimentation, and often this does mean with drugs and/or alcohol. We at The Leader do not endorse these behaviors but do acknowledge that they often take place. We can only hope that all students, faculty and staff realize that each individual that is in some way connected to this institution will be acting as a reflection of all of us, at one point or another, and urge everyone to consider potential consequences that may occur as a result of individual actions. Because as The Daily Beast proves, while most of us would like to be considered as individuals, in the grand scheme of things, we are often lumped together with those around us; for actions both positive and negative.