Projects to prevent binge drinking on college campuses, however noble their intent, cannot truly be effective when the surrounding environment fairly shouts, 'Just Do It.' In Ohio, 31 state-funding schools are taking an environmental approach to prevention that officials hope will make a dent in the beer-can pyramids in dorm-room windows, and sweep the school-logo shot glasses out of campus bookstores.Funded with a total of $100,000 from the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Services (ODADAS) and the state Office of Criminal Justice Services (OCJS), the Ohio binge-drinking project centers on the idea that the campus culture directly impacts student drinking habits, said Patricia Harmon, M.A., executive director of Ohio Parents for a Drug-Free Youth and a program consultant. "The entire campus community has to change, not just individual students," she told audience members at the 1998 National Prevention Network Research Conference, where she was part of a panel on 'High Risk Drinking Among College Students.'
In addition to the state funding, the federal Center for Substance Abuse Prevention provided backing for a $2,500 mini-grant program. "The money is not to be spent on traditional binge-drinking programs, but rather for use on developing coalitions and enhancing the environmental approach," said Harmon. One school, for example, used a portion of their CSAP money to buy disposable cameras to take pictures of the local drinking scene. The pictures were used to graphically illustrate the school's drinking problem to school administrators -- a key step in a project where high-profile leadership is critical to engaging both the college and the surrounding community.
Especially effective in defining the scope of each school's binge-drinking problem was an evaluation performed by Ohio Parents for a Drug-Free Youth, OCJS and the Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention, a national resource center based in Massachusetts. An 'environmental scan' of the 31 schools revealed that:
• 88 percent of schools permitted alcohol at events
• 88 percent had alcohol outlets near campus; of those outlets, 62 percent ran promotions aimed at students
• only 13 percent of alcohol outlets required server training to prevent sales to underage students and prevent binge drinking
• 86 percent of campus stores sold alcohol-related items
• 58 percent of schools permitted alcohol-related ads and events to be posted on student bulletin boards
Perhaps just as indicative of the campus environment, researchers found that 86 percent of student dorm rooms had pyramids of beer cans stacked in their windows -- and almost all dorm rooms were decorated with alcohol-related posters or other items.
A prevention program that addresses campus customs, norms and traditions would be new to 89 percent of schools, the evaluation found. Of the 31 schools involved in the project, 6 were found to have a low rate of bingeing (0-35 percent of students reporting binge drinking, defined as having five or more drinks at a sitting for males, four or more for females). Eleven percent of schools were determined to have a medium level of bingeing (36-50 percent), and eight were found to have a high incidence of binge drinking (51 percent or more).
The binge-drinking coalitions need to be diverse to be effective, said Harmon, including not only the school president or someone who reports directly to him or her, but also representatives from the campus residential life, housekeeping and security departments. Local community leaders must also be represented, said Harmon, including people who live near the campus and even local bar owners. Candace Peters, M.A, an OCJS evaluator, noted that faculty were represented on 97 percent of Ohio coalitions, while students were on 90 percent. Sixty-eight percent of coalitions included representatives from sorority or fraternity groups, 52 percent had local merchants involved, and 48 percent included neighborhood associations in their membership.
While the Ohio project is still in its early stages, priorities for changing campus environments include:
• targeting prevention messages at first-year students and sorority and fraternity members
• strengthening coalitions
• getting alcohol ads out of residence halls
• changing school disciplinary policies related to alcohol (Peters noted that one school used to allow students 24 infractions before taking serious action; that's now been cut to eight.)
• implementing campus-wide media campaigns
• server training (provided free-of-charge by the state)
• implementing a social-marketing campaign
Coalitions also will address local zoning issues and such obvious mixed-messages about drinking as school stores selling beer mugs, shot glasses and party t-shirts, added Harmon. Some of the barriers to implementation include getting school administrators involved, limited fiscal resources and staff, and a short school year to get the message across, said Peters.
Students also can present a significant barrier to implementation -- particularly those who chose an institution based on its reputation as a 'party school.' Noted Peters: "In some cases, the more we publicized what we were doing, the more upset students became." In some cases -- including at Ohio State -- students rioted to protest restrictive alcohol policies, said Harmon. Quick intervention by school administrators can help defuse problems. For example, in the wake of the Ohio State riots the school's president and football coach visited with students to discuss their concerns. No further violence has been reported, said Harmon.
Sustaining coalitions also can be a problem, Ohio officials noted. For example, while 97 percent of schools reported having a coalition in place after the first year of the project, only 79 percent still had a coalition after the second year.
Finally, a number of outcome indicators have been established to judge the success of the binge-drinking project over the coming years, including:
• the number of alcohol-related court cases heard involving students
• number of the reported alcohol-related complaints and arrests on campus and in surrounding areas
• the number of alcohol-related problems handled by the campus health department
• class attendance after drinking nights (Monday mornings, days after holidays, etc.)
• the number of non-alcohol events held, and the number of student participants
For more information, contact Pat Harmon, Ohio Parents for a Drug-Free Youth: 614-268-6255, opdfy@infinet.com; or Candace Peters, Office of Criminal Justice Services: 614-466-7782; peters@ocjs.state.oh.us.
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