On-campus substance abuse turning extreme, dangerous

"The percentage of kids who drink and binge drink is essentially the same between 1993 and 2005, but the intensity of the drinking has dramatically changed," Califano said. "There's an intensity to the consumption we see here that we don't see in the general population."

At the University of Kentucky, longtime administrator Victor Hazard says he too has noticed a change, with more students drinking simply to get drunk.

"To the extent there is such a thing as a social drinker, it was more of a meet-and-greet type of environment in the earlier years when I was here," said Hazard, Kentucky's associate vice president for student affairs and dean of students.

Now, he said, students are "drinking to become intoxicated as fast as they possibly can."

Carol Falkowski, director of research communications for the Hazelden Foundation, an addiction treatment and research group, said too many students think excessive drinking is OK.

"It's getting more intense," she said. "Drinking games that were happening in private parties or houses or bonfires 10 years ago are now happening in public venues. That to me reflects a sort of larger acceptance of extreme drinking."

College administrators often say they know campus substance abuse is a problem but say there is little they can do.

But the report's authors say it's a question of commitment.

"Things do work, it's just having the will and time and money to implement them," said Roger Vaughan, a Columbia biostatistician involved in the report. "People need to step up and realize this is not a rite of passage, this is not something we should tolerate. If it keeps going, we're going to destroy our best and brightest."