They Can All Spell STOLICHNAYA –
Mar. 19, 2026 – There’s one goal for the night: get blackout drunk and maybe get lucky enough to experience a dance floor make. “As all freshmen at Penn do, we’re going fratting and we’re gonna go wander around until we find a party, and we’re gonna take shots of bottom–shelf vodka,” Ally says as they describe their New Student Orientation experience.
As the first day of class begins, many freshmen march to their 10:15s regretting the seven shots of Crown Russe they took last night. Out of the 100 people sitting in the class, there’s about 27 students that meet the criteria for a substance use disorder.
For Penn administration and students, substance abuse disorder is much easier to turn your back on than to stand up and ask questions about. In a 2021 report by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 49.3% of college students reported consuming alcohol in the past month. In a study including 1,253 college students, 20% attested they had opportunities to use cocaine over their past year at college. But despite substance use becoming a growing concern for college students, there’s a lack of transparency about the issue from the University. Only a very limited number of University–released reports about campus substance use are publicly available. That lack of transparency also extends to Penn’s programming for new students. Penn Violence Prevention’s NSO consent circles, for example, are critical in educating freshmen about sexuality and relationships. Students work through scenarios to better understand how to protect themselves and others from potentially dangerous relationships. But there is nothing in the NSO schedule that teaches new students about recognizing the signs of drug abuse, addiction, or alcoholism.
