REPORT: DRINKING HAS BECOME AN EPIDEMIC ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES WASHINGTON (Reuter) - U.S. college campuses are experiencing an epidemic of alcohol abuse, including a dramatic rise in the number of female students who are heavy drinkers, according to a study released Tuesday. A commission serving Columbia University's Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse unveiled its two-year examination of alcohol abuse at American colleges and universities. The report said the increase is influencing violence, vandalism, health-care costs, academic performance and, in some cases, student deaths. The Rev. Edward Malloy, president of Notre Dame University and chairman of the commission that studied the problem, said college leaders ``must challenge any campus culture that accepts binge drinking as a rite of passage for America's youth." The study found that one of three college students, many of them under the legal age for drinking, now drink primarily to get drunk. A disturbing finding is that the number of female students drinking with the intention of getting drunk has more than tripled in the past 15 years, from 10 percent to 35 percent. The study found that 60 percent of college women who have sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS, were under the influence of alcohol at the time of intercourse. It also said 90 percent of campus rapes occur when alcohol is being used either by the assailant or by the victim. The report also said 95 percent of violent crime and 53 percent of all injuries on campus are alcohol-related. It said drinking is implicated in 41 percent of all academic problems and 28 percent of all dropouts.