Barrett Seaman's new book about college life isn't always flattering to Hamilton College, where he graduated in 1967 and has served as a trustee since 1989.

But when Seaman, a former Time magazine reporter, came back to live at the college in Clinton for two weeks as part of research for the book, journalistic training won out over nostalgia.

"I didn't pull any punches on Hamilton," said Seaman, whose "Binge: What Your College Student Won't Tell You" was released this summer. "I'm sure that there were some people on campus who read that book and cringed and said our dirty laundry is getting hung out there.

"But so is Harvard's. So is Dartmouth's. If there is dirty laundry being aired, we're in good company."

The book examines campus culture through 11 highly regarded colleges in the United States and McGill University in Montreal. Seaman lived with students at each campus for a while, observing them at class and at play.

In thematic chapters, the book tackles topics such as date rape, study habits, alcohol and drug abuse, fraternities and sororities, and the impact of technology.

Seaman describes binge drinking and its aftermath at Hamilton and other campuses. On the other side, he talks about Hamilton's successful summer research programs, caring faculty, and coaches who insist their athletes focus on education.

Hamilton President Joan Hinde Stewart called the book "essential reading."

"I think it's a very important contribution to the discussion of higher education," Stewart said. "One of the things I like about the book is it's fair, evenhanded and balanced. It's really designed to identify the common threads, the general challenges across higher education."

At Hamilton, Seaman lived for two weeks with 17 students in Rogers House, a half-mile from campus. He attended seminars, spent time at the college newspaper offices, worked out in the fitness center and rode around with a campus safety officer on patrols. He spent similar stints at the other 11 colleges.

What struckhim most about Hamilton College, more than 30 years after he graduated, was how much more students had access to, from labs to laptops.

"When I was in college, communications technology was a pay phone at the end of the corridor," Seaman said in an interview. "I was impressed by how much building has gone on. The science building is just an incredible collection of state-of-the-art equipment. There's a climbing wall in the fitness center."

Another profound change at Hamilton was the diminished role of fraternities, a change that Seaman, a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon, had helped bring about. As a college trustee, he wrote the controversial plan in the mid-1990s that eliminated fraternity houses on the campus.

That change accomplished much of what it intended, he said. In particular, it gave female students an equal footing on campus by eliminating fraternity houses as the major social centers, Seaman said.

What the fraternity crackdown didn't accomplish, Seaman said, was to end the practice of binge drinking. In one of the book's bleaker chapters, Seaman observes emergency medical technicians rushing to Hamilton's North Hall to treat a freshman girl who overdosed on alcohol.

By winter break in 2003, he reports, more than 20 Hamilton students ended up in local hospitals for treatment of alcohol overdoses. He also talks of students who had "pre-game" parties, to get drunk before going to bars or parties.