Funnel spring break energy into positive alternatives

By MARC YACHT

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 21, 2000

I was a late-'50s University of Miami undergraduate. Spring break meant mounting my Vespa for an hour's ride to Fort Lauderdale, immortalized in the film Where the Boys Are. Its award-winning song, of the same name sung by Connie Francis, is played frequently on oldies stations today. Young men mimicked for years a particularly catchy offering of the film, the drawing of question marks in the sand while trying to make female acquaintances on the beach. I tried it, but with little success. That's another story.

It is said the late 1950s was another time, another era, perhaps a different America. The mentioned film rang true, though, with an array of disturbed youth and dangerous behavior resulting in the death of one student and perhaps serving as a harbinger of worse things to come. Other films such as Grease and West Side Story gave both the bright and dark sides of life in the '50s, capturing both innocence and disillusionment while predating a drift toward increasing deadly violence and reckless behavior among our youth.

Spring accompanied by school break is just around the corner. Large numbers of college students will travel to exotic places abroad or to an array of U.S. fun spots from Key West to Seattle. Along with the exodus of students in all directions is a college holiday that is notorious for fast, sleepless drives, binge drinking, substance abuse, excessive partying and reckless behavior. Police across the country are well-prepared for the assault and suggest that instead of enjoying their vacations, students who break the law may find themselves in a legal situation requiring time, money and embarrassment. Students shouldn't assume that because they are fun-loving college kids, lawlessness is acceptable. A Baylor, Texas, police chief said that students should use common sense when away from home to avoid run-ins with the law.

Wild parties, alcohol, tobacco and drugs make a deadly cocktail; and every spring break, we are anguished by many of those happy-go-lucky students meeting untimely ends or serious injuries due to thoughtless activity. It is not unusual to read of falls from motel balconies by inebriated students. There are further reports of serious illness due to alcohol intoxication and injuries due to violence. Many undergraduates face DUI arrests. Date rapes associated with drugs are reported. Excessive all-night parties lead to unwanted pregnancies, risk for sexually transmitted disease and further lawbreaking.

Some communities have suggested banning students during spring break. Others have cracked down hard to keep students in check. A bright student might ask, "Are we really having fun?"

Aside from risks associated with raucous behavior is danger related to climate. Severe sunburn, dehydration and sunstroke are risks for northern students visiting tropical climates from cold winter locations. Drowning incidents are not uncommon, not forgetting pedestrian injuries, vehicular accidents and injuries due to brawls.

Inversely, students from warm climates traveling north may drive through ice and snow with inappropriately equipped cars and further face a myriad of winter hazards. In all, spring break can offer a sad picture of our college youth vacationing in communities around the country and abroad. Certainly, this is a distorted view of our university student body, for there are other ways to enjoy a furlough from professors and books. Many undergrads are doing just that.

A dozen University of Chicago students during a recent spring break spent the week in Washington sleeping in a homeless shelter, painting buildings, and helping unemployed women prepare for job interviews. A student at Chicago's DePaul University said the choice was simple: "I can go to Cancun and get drunk with my friends, which is meaningless, or I can go broaden the scope of what I know about other people."

Break Away, an 8-year-old group at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, claims 20,000 students from across the nation did some type of alternative break activity. More and more campuses are nervous about binge drinking, preventable accidents and violence; their students are encouraged to skip the partying for higher pursuits.

A spokesman for Norwich University, a central Vermont school, said, "This generation does want to make a difference." Students from Norwich went to Washington to work in soup kitchens and build houses. Others participated in local charity work, some tutored migrant farm workers in Florida, built homes in Appalachia and registered voters in rural Mississippi.

As relayed by one Vermont student, "We're doing this; it's lots of fun. We're helping other people help themselves, too, so that's really important to all of us and that's why we're committed to doing this."

This year students at the University of San Diego will tutor grade school children in Arizona. Twenty students from Siena College in Loudonville, N.Y., near Albany, will spend a week helping a Navajo community in Tohatchi, N.M. The University of Cincinnati choir spent its break on a tour that included historically black colleges.

Marquette University in Milwaukee has sponsored service spring breaks for more than 20 years and the University of Dayton in Ohio, for about 10.

Said one student, "It's fabulous, it's lots of fun. We learn a lot about the communities. We share ourselves, and they share their stories, and it's great to experience such diversity within our own country."

There are alternatives to spring break that can redirect students' energies to useful projects in communities across the nation. College youth should discuss with school counselors what opportunities for service exist and seriously consider those options. Such activity beats serious risks associated with partying and wild activity. Perhaps, a visit to parents who often foot the bill instead of the usual call requesting funds would be appreciated.

-- Dr. Marc J. Yacht, director, Pasco County Health Department.

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.