This article was completed in collaboration with John Bailer and Richard Campbell's Journalism/Statistics 380 class: News and Numbers.

According to research findings, 60 percent of students at Miami University who drink claim they have no intention of curbing their alcohol consumption in the next six months.

At a place like Miami, where there is an active and ongoing campaign against excessive alcohol consumption, these numbers can seem surprising.

Binge drinking is defined as four or more drinks at once for women and five or more for men. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, binge drinking is a common practice on college campuses nationwide.

Miami uses several avenues to educate students of the risks associated with binge drinking and to make it as difficult as possible for students to get away with it on a regular basis. The Garland Initiative included proposals like requiring students to stay in on-campus housing for the first two years of study. Other efforts like increasing the number of Friday and 8 a.m. classes were all aimed at least in part in curbing excessive drinking the night before.

And of course there is AlcoholEdu, the computer-based alcohol education program all incoming first-year students have to complete.

University administrators say the program is effective, and if just one life is saved it was worth the $15 per student charge.

According to Leslie Haxby McNeil, assistant director of health education, students have been responding positively to the AlcoholEdu program, especially in recent years.

"We have seen over the course of time is that the program has mitigated what we call the college effect," McNeil said. "There are some students who are going to drink no matter what we do and at the end of the day my goal is for students to stay safe, or stay safer and not compromise some of the things that are important to them."

In fact, AlcoholEdu sends data to Miami University about students' responses to the program. Students have to answer questions like "did you pay attention to the program?" following the survey, and according to McNeil the majority of students responded with a yes.

But when asked about it, most students seem to be less enthusiastic about the program.

In a convenience survey of 100 students at Miami University, 78 percent said they did not pay attention to the tutorial.

Senior Riley Stewart said she remembers taking the program her first year. She also remembers not really paying attention.

"I think I had it up but it just kind of plays and I was doing other stuff on the Internet," she said. "It's just stupid because you don't have to pay attention - you just hit next, next, next."

In fact, when asked, one student said he chose to do laundry rather than pay attention. Another claimed he created a computer program to run the tutorial for them, and they were even kind enough to share it with the rest of their residence hall. Another student said he paid some attention, but the program made him want a beer.

Brandon Beastid, founder and CEO of Outside the Classroom, which runs the AlcoholEdu program, said the tutorial was never meant to stop students from consuming alcohol.

"We've never billed AlcoholEdu as a silver bullet, I mean there's no such thing, but it's also most definitely the case that on a number of independent evaluations of the program it has absolutely reduced the negative consequences that students experience from high risk drinking," Beastid said.

Still, most students seem to think it's a waste of time and an ineffective intervention program.

"I honestly don't think that education programs should happen in college," senior Kelly McCormick said. "No one's exposed to alcohol for the first time in college."

She said she remembers the program, and said she remembers thinking she hadn't learned anything new.

According to the research conducted at Miami University, part of the problem is that drinking patterns have already been established by the time students reach college. The researcher prefers not to be identified, but said it's largely a problem of the culture. Students believe they can drink excessively in college and then just stop as soon as they put on their cap and gown and walk out of Oxford with a diploma.

Others think a change in the type of program could make a difference. According to McNeil, Miami University will be joining the BACCHUS Network, a peer education program, in the near future.

Jeffrey Potteiger, professor of kinesiology and health and the former head of the Garland Initiatives Alcohol Abuse Prevention Task Force, said the efforts to curb excessive drinking are all a step in the right direction.

"The judgment of whether it's valuable or not is whether you think it's worthwhile and had some sort of impact, and I think it's definitely the case here," Potteiger said.

The task force did not include the implementation of the AlcoholEdu program, but McNeil agreed the efforts are all for the better.

"The fact of the matter is alcohol's been a part of Miami's culture since the get go, and it would take a really concerted effort and everyone sending a message, students trying to change the culture," McNeil said. "There's no one thing that's going to change the problem."

She said students may not think it's cool to say AlcoholEdu was useful, but their responses indicate they did pay attention, and they did internalize some of the information.