NORMAL -- Parents and guardians need to wake up to high-risk drinking and related behavior, including driving under the influence of alcohol and fighting, said a community-campus group.

"We're not about suppressing a good time," said Jeff Fritzen, co-chairman of the Bloomington-Normal Community Campus Committee. "We're about establishing a community standard" on acceptable and unacceptable behavior, he said.

The committee includes representatives of Illinois State and Illinois Wesleyan universities, Heartland Community College, Lincoln College-Normal, Chestnut Health Systems, Project Oz, BroMenn Regional Medical Center, McLean County Sheriff's Department, and Bloomington and Normal police departments, schools and city councils.

The committee is sponsoring a Community Forum from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at IWU's Hansen Student Center, Bloomington.

"We want to establish a dialogue with the community" on alcohol-related problems, said Fritzen, a member of the Normal City Council.

A recent survey of Bloomington-Normal area college students, by the CORE Institute, found that 56 percent of students drank five of more alcoholic drinks in one sitting at least once in the previous 30 days; 74 percent of students said they did most of their drinking off campus; 22 percent reported driving under the influence; 39 percent reported getting into an argument or fight while drinking; and 9 percent reported experiencing sexual assault related to drinking.

But Fritzen said Monday after a news conference to announce the forum that the committee is concerned about high-risk drinking among people throughout their teen years into their 20s.

Fritzen called attention to a lawsuit recently filed against two downtown Bloomington businesses that claims six men who allegedly drank there later stabbed and killed Josh Embry of Normal.

He also mentioned a 26-year-old Champaign man who died recently after attending a party in Normal. McLean County Coroner Beth Kimmerling said the investigation into Mitchell Robinson's death continues and it is not known whether his death is alcohol-related. But there was alcohol at the party, she said.

Hospital emergency departments are affected when students suffer alcohol-related injuries, said Bobbie Lewis Sibley, the committee's project coordinator at ISU.

Sibley and Fritzen recommended that parents know where their teens are and keep in touch with them; that parents network with other parents; and that bars train servers to not serve anyone who is intoxicated.