Why It Matters Where College Students Binge-Drink

On Saturday, April 27, at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, a group of students calling themselves the Coalition to End Fraternity Violence seized the fraternity house of the campus’s Phi Kappa Psi chapter, one of two fraternities on campus. Earlier in April, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer, internal documents from the frat that were leaked to campus news outlets included Phi Kappa Psi members’ “derogatory comments about women, minorities, and LGBTQ people” and “crude jokes about parties, illegal drugs, and sexual assault.”  Some might argue that individual students’ misconduct is more to blame for sexual assault than any frat house or party hot spot. But according to a new study published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, party locations do play a role in increasing the frequency of sexually aggressive behavior.