With alcohol being a constant factor in college life, school and city officials remind students the risks involved with binge drinking.

“We’re doing all the things we know how to do to ask people to make responsible decisions and to avoid high-risk behavior,” said Bob Shaw, associate dean of students.

All aspects of the university are consistent with encouraging students to avoid binge drinking, which is defined as four or more drinks in one setting for women, and five or more drinks in one setting for men, Shaw said.

Everything from Alcohol Awareness Week to resident assistants implementing alcohol safety issues encourages students to be cautious. Each student receives a birthday card on his or her 21st birthday reminding him or her to drink responsibly.

Shaw said 30 percent of UW-Eau Claire students report not drinking at all, and less than half of the students report binge drinking. The problem, he said, is the perception students have from advertising that alcohol use is risk-free.

“It is widely accepted that binge drinking and high-risk behaviors associated with binge drinking are the ones that can be hazardous to people and even life threatening,” Shaw said.

Junior Michael Noll was last seen Nov. 5, his 22nd birthday, when friends say he left the Nasty Habit Saloon, 341 Water St., alone and intoxicated. Police reported that later that night he wandered, disoriented, into a woman’s house on Oxford Avenue, just a few blocks from his home at 1020 First Ave. The search for him is focused on the Chippewa River.

“Mr. Noll is not the only student who has had alcohol impaired problems in the course of the year,” Shaw said. “The issue is much bigger than Mike Noll. The issue is the perception that some students have that drinking is a right of passage.”

Jack Corey, community relations officer for the Eau Claire Police Department, said he has seen what happens to students who drink too much. He often deals with students who lose their inhibitions, become aggressive or extremely passive, and act with behavior that is uncharacteristic.

“Their survival tools tend to fail them because they don’t know how to use them or access them after drinking,” Corey said.

Although Noll’s case seems to be extreme, Corey said binge drinking can lead to other circumstances that are unhealthy or can strain relationships with friends or families.

He suggested students always go out with someone who will keep an eye on them, and who they can keep an eye on. Never walk home by yourself, he said, and be aware of what you are drinking.

“You may go out there with the best of intentions,” Corey said, “and all of a sudden you get caught up in whatever is going on and you suddenly have a situation where you are more out of control than you ever expected to be.”