One reason for all of these initiatives is a law that requires schools receiving federal funds to conduct a campus survey of alcohol and drug use every other year, said Ed Pimentel, a researcher at the Core Institute at Southern Illinois University. The Core Institute provides survey support to schools around the country and then compiles data from those surveys.

The results reveal a lot of problems.

"About 30 percent of students are going to drink heavily and frequently," Pimentel said. "There are a lot of people who say college drinking is a non-issue, people will mature out of it, but indeed many don't, and many suffer for it, and their performance isn't what it could be."

A 2005 study by Boston University found that 1,700 college students die each year of alcohol-related causes while 560,000 more are hurt or injured because of their drinking.

Alcohol-related sex is also a major concern. The Boston study showed that more than 97,000 students are victims of sexual assaults related to drinking. An earlier landmark study by Harvard estimated that nearly 400,000 full-time students may have unprotected sex as a result of drinking.

The statistics didn't surprise Sunday's Provo partygoers.

"I've been to parties at Arizona State University where 14 kegs were lined up around the on-campus housing quad," said Ali Smylie, who isn't a BYU student but a Salt Lake native dating Ben Wade, one of the kegnog organizers.

One time, Smylie kept her eye on a girlfriend who was drinking. When she and a man suddenly disappeared, Smylie gathered a group to track them down. They found the woman screaming for help as the man appeared to be preparing to sexually assault her. A fight ensued, and Smylie said a gun was pulled.

The closest things to debauchery at Sunday's kegnogger were the football game on television (some LDS don't watch TV on Sunday), the straddle-jump hug one young woman gave a man and the fish feeding. At 9 p.m., two women, using their bare hands, dropped three goldfish one at a time into a huge fish tank. Dozens of partygoers cheered as a lionfish, a soap fish and a squirrel fish successfully hunted the prey. The scene was repeated again at 10 p.m., and the party disbanded.

No statistics are available on how many BYU students drink alcohol, but some do run afoul of the university's Honor Code, which prohibits alcohol, drugs and tobacco.

Jorge Zavala, a Provo native and former Utah Valley State College student now studying at the University of Utah, said he knows a few BYU students who binge drink and stay in tight circles to keep their drinking a secret.

Since 2000, between 1.5 percent and 3.5 percent of the student body in a given year was referred to the Honor Code Office, according to BYU's accreditation study. The university does not provide a breakdown of alleged offenses, BYU spokeswoman Carri Jenkins said.

Zavala, who is LDS, said in his experience most BYU students do follow the Honor Code.

"BYU students are definitely a lot more creative in their parties," Zavala said. "There's a lot of BYU influence on UVSC parties, too. In Salt Lake I see a lot of alcohol abuse among college-age kids. That's what they do for fun."

Enough fun was had Sunday night that the BYU students — Wade, Craig Jaynes and Kurt Reber — who organized it said they'll hold a third kegnog next year.

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E-mail: twalch@desnews.com