Drugs, sexual abuse, underage and binge-drinking, and fraternity hazing have been issues on college campuses for decades. Yet rape continues to be a problem on college campuses, fraternities continue to perpetuate a dangerous hazing culture and underage drinking is tolerated at a majority of universities. Why is it that even though there are groups advocating for better sexual violence prevention and education on drugs and alcohol, American universities and colleges are plagued by these systemic issues?

The simple answer lies in a report published by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University in 2007, which revealed just how low of a priority substance abuse is on college campuses. According to the paper, college deans and presidents tolerate the issues of drug and alcohol-related violations because they don’t believe they can make any significant changes in how students abuse drugs and binge drink. Many high-ranking administrative officials and powerful alumni at universities believe that experimentation is necessary and unavoidable.

I argue that there is a nationwide belief that experimentation, however dangerous, is regarded as a “rite of passage” at colleges—administrators turn a blind eye not only to drinking and drug use but also toward the practices of fraternities and the abusive and violent actions of certain individuals. Given the inherent challenges of constantly policing college students, the typical college student is enabled to develop an invincibility complex, in which he believes he has a certain legal immunity that does not exist in the real world.

Recent news headlines have been dominated by the emergence of heinous depictions of sexual assault on college campuses. In a recent Rolling Stone article, a student at the University of Virginia alleged that she had been gang raped at a fraternity as a part of a hazing test. After the incident, her faculty advisor told her to keep “keep it quiet.”

USA Today recently published an article outlining fraternity suspensions in colleges across America, including a bizarre incident at California State University, Northridge, when a Pi Kappa Phi pledge died on a hike after the group of pledges had run out of water. All of the university’s 54 fraternities and sororities were suspended after this incident at CSU. The list of deaths is honestly quite shocking, yet the response to these drinking- and hazing-related incidents is simply to shut down fraternities and sororities. That action does nothing to stop the “rite of passage” culture at fraternities. What becomes clear is that fraternities are allowed a certain legal freedom in their discourse and that there is little effort to actually put a stop to the culture fraternities create.

The tolerance of a drug and binge-drinking culture is where colleges and universities far and away show that there is a problem on campuses across America. According to the National Survey on Drug Health, “study drugs” like Adderall are becoming more prevalent on college campuses than ever. Binge-drinking rates continue to be highest among young adults aged 18-21 years, and 25 percent of students are reporting lower academic success because of alcohol use.

Even given these problems and the number of deaths occurring on campuses, the policies in place at universities to deal with drug and alcohol violations can be very negligent. An evaluation done by Dr. Vivian Faden on college alcohol policies found that many universities had vague descriptions of possible consequences for violating drinking rules. She explained that universities seemed not to be making a concerted effort to teach their students that their drinking behaviors are not only punishable by law but are also incredibly dangerous.

I do not believe colleges will ever be able to eliminate experimentation on campuses, and honestly, I see no point in trying to police students to the point that colleges become totalitarian regimes that enforce strict moral codes. Yet I find it disturbing that as a country, we continue to discuss the issues of drinking, drugs and hazing on campuses and almost nothing is changing.

As a country, we cannot wholeheartedly expect to inspire dramatic culture change on college campuses. You will never be able to eliminate dangerous behaviors or fraternity hazing. However, there is a key ingredient missing from this discussion—education. Sure, colleges and universities have alcohol education programs and suspension and expulsion policies in place when students break too many rules, but what happens when something awful happens?

I firmly believe that to inspire any kind of change, there needs to be a new emphasis on accountability at colleges. Suspending students and fraternities isn’t going to change the extreme rites of passage that exist on college campuses. Students should be cognizant of the discrepancy between the punishments they could receive as students and the ones doled out to non-students proven guilty of the same offenses.