'Times-Union' Focuses On Underage Drinking

By: Wayne Robins When four college students were killed in an underage drunk-driving accident at nearby Colgate University last fall, the Times Union in Albany, N.Y., knew it had to respond to the tragedy in a special way. But how?

"We, the editors, were all collectively stunned at the senselessness of it," said Jeff Cohen, vice president and editor of the paper. Although Albany is the state capital, it is also a college town, gravitational center for at least 16 colleges and universities.

The result was the Aug. 26 edition of the Times Union, in which the issue of underage drinking permeated almost every section.

The centerpiece was "Last Call," a 16-page magazine supplement aimed at younger readers. It featured a cartoon called "Loaded," frank profiles with occasionally coarse language, and vivid graphics of people whose lives had been drastically altered by drinking and driving. Page One of the newspaper had more conventional narrative reporting, while the weekly "Perspective" section "framed the intellectual debate" over what was headlined "Battle of the Binge."

Cohen is cautious about assessing the impact of the paper's blitz. But thousands of of stand-alone "Last Call" copies were distributed to area colleges in time for orientation. And R. Mark Sullivan, president of Albany's College of St. Rose, ordered 2,000 of the inserts. He planned to send one to each of his students -- "with a personal note to carefully digest its contents, hopefully before the next occasion to drink is planned."