However, the 5/4 measure has been widely recognized by public health professionals. The Surgeon General, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute on Drug Abuse all apply a five-drink standard.

The BACCHUS and GAMMA Peer Education Network, a Task Force member, is among those leading the charge; interestingly, representatives of Miller Brewing Company, Anheuser-Busch Companies and Coors Brewing Company serve on the Network's board of trustees. The alcohol industry is profit-motivated, and it may have its own reasons for wanting to discredit the term "binge drinking" and the years of research conducted by leading academic and governmental research organizations.

Using this standard allows for the more accurate assessment of drinking on campus. The Crimson staff found that about the same proportion (45 percent) of Harvard students binge drink as the national average, but that only one quarter of these students are frequent binge drinkers--half of the national average.

Although this difference may be real, a note of caution is advised before uncorking the champagne: The timing of the Harvard survey may have influenced the results. Students were interviewed during reading period, a time when there may be less drinking in general and when heavier-drinking students less concerned about their coursework may have been away from school. Furthermore, the Harvard survey was completed in 2001, almost two full years after the national sample. Drinking rates may have changed everywhere since then.

Nevertheless, The Crimson has made an important contribution by bringing the issues of alcohol use and abuse at Harvard into the public forum for open discussion.

Henry Wechsler is a lecturer at the School of Public Health and the principal investigator of the College Alcohol Study. Statistics for the study may be found at http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/cas.