HARTFORD, Conn. -- Awards were given Monday to Connecticut schools that have worked to combat binge drinking.

The awards were issued by the state's Healthy Campus Initiative.

Wesleyan Senior Matthew Ball told Eyewitness News that on most of the state's college campuses, it is not difficult to find underage drinking.

"Everyone knows the law, but I think that people are willing to disregard it," he said.

Ball, the school's student assembly president, said he supports changing the focus from working against students to working with them.

"Perhaps in the past, more of the focus was on enforcement, but now more of it is on working with students and finding cooperative ways to help students make good choices," he said.

Former U.S. Secretary of Health and President of the Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University Joseph Califano was the keynote speaker at Monday's event.

"Connecticut is really leading the way with this agreement between the colleges and universities that they'll deal with all aspects of substance abuse and alcohol abuse on college campuses," he said.

Califano said that for continued success, colleges need to work with surrounding communities and parents.

"There's no question that for most of these young people -- parental disapproval, the culture on campus, the culture in the high school is far more important than laws," he said.

According to addiction experts, about 75 percent of those who drink, smoke or used drugs in college began while they were in high school.