Thomas Mott Osborne: “this evening we honored the Connecticut men's and women's basketball teams for winning national championships, a truly…”

“this evening we honored the Connecticut men's and women's basketball teams for winning national championships, a truly remarkable accomplishment to have two teams from one school do this. Not long ago, the National Academy of Science released a report on preventing underage drinking. This seems like disparate events, but they are actually connected. The National Academy of Science report recommended that colleges and universities ban alcohol advertising and promotion on campus in order to discourage alcohol use among underage students. Research points out the problem of alcohol consumption on college campuses. First of all, 1,400 college students are killed annually in alcohol-related accidents, and we have all anguished over the fatalities in Iraq, over 700. Well, more than double that number will be killed on college campuses this year because of alcohol abuse. The proportion of college students who say they drink to get drunk is rising. In 1993, roughly 40 percent of college students reported binge drinking. By 2001, that figure had risen to 48 percent. Mr. Speaker, 70,000 students are victims of alcohol-related sexual assaults each year. Most of these are date rapes. More than 500,000 students suffer alcohol-related injuries annually. Despite these statistics, a total of $53 million in 2001 and $58 million in 2002 was spent to place ads in college sports programs by the alcohol industry.”