The University of Wisconsin is among a handful of colleges and universities that not only confront students about underage drinking reports from campus police but also contact offenders' parents when their college-age kids are caught drunk in public, the New York Times reported Sept. 12.

At Wisconsin, any student taken to a detoxification facility faces an interview with a college dean and a call to their parents from the school when they sober up. But for underage drinkers, a call home can be triggered by a simple alcohol summons, not just detox.

That's a big change for a school with a long history of alcohol tolerance, where in the 1970s students could buy beer at the university snack bar with their meal cards and college buses were equipped with kegs for an annual German pre-Lent festival.

College officials say the change is reflective of the drinking culture, which has gone from social to antisocial. "Unambiguously, alcohol abuse is the No. 1 health and safety problem on every college campus," said Wisconsin Chancellor John D. Wiley. "I don't even know what would be No. 2. Just about every unpleasant incident, every crime, involves alcohol abuse by the victim or the perpetrator. The question is, what do you do that's effective to prevent it? And there's no magic bullet."

School officials say the risk of exposure to parents has proven to be a powerful deterrent for students. The problem continues despite the parental-notification policy: 112 Wisconsin students were taken to detox during the 2006-07 academic year, up from 44 in 2004-05, before the policy was put into place. But the number of repeat offenders has fallen.

"We're not calling home to tattle," said Tonya Schmidt, interim assistant dean of students at Wisconsin. "We're calling to ask parents to be partners with us. We are saying that we're concerned, and want to work on your child making better choices for the future. We do want the students to know there are consequences, but our goal isn't to be harsh and punitive. It's to make sure this behavior doesn't happen again."

St. Lawrence University in upstate New York and Ohio Northern University have similar parental-notification policies.