As the new academic year approaches, we must continue to be thoughtful and creative about how we frame the conversation around high risk drinking to an often unreceptive audience of students and parents who feel like they have long since gotten the message that binge drinking is dangerous and unhealthy.
Undoubtedly the safety and well-being of students are our top priorities and should be clearly expressed as such, but if a campus dialogue on alcohol fails to expand beyond discussions on health and safety, prevention messages are unlikely to resonate broadly and lastingly because much of the audience has effectively tuned out. Part of that is developmental (at least for the students), but it is also valuable to identify different starting points to the campus alcohol abuse prevention conversation. Such varied gateway topics as the job market, social responsibility, and diversity provide opportunities to gain student interest, buy-in, and traction before the focus shifts to alcohol.
I suggest enlisting partners outside the traditional cast of alcohol abuse prevention characters such as your institution’s career development office who can, for example, in the context of heightened student anxiety over the economic downturn, shine a light on the effect that a party school reputation is having on students’ job prospects. I have seen significantly increasing student receptivity over the last two years to the notion that infamous college drinking incidents and cultures may be diminishing the returns on sizeable tuition investments. Highlighting the financial stakes captures many students’ attention with urgency and can be an effective and disarming bridge to discussions of harm reduction and culture change.
Consider further tapping campus leaders in the areas of public/community service and diversity who can highlight the dissonance between the high value students generally place on diversity and social responsibility and the damage their high-risk drinking behavior can have on recruiting a diverse student body and maintaining a safe community. When done in a data driven and concrete way, students can effectively be drawn into an analysis of the trade-offs that come from an institution needing to deal with high-risk drinking. Students should understand clearly that the costs due to extra security, the disciplinary process, or building damage all take dollars away from the very financial aid needed by poor and underrepresented students or the community service programs that serve people in need.
Regardless of the angles of approach, in framing the messages and the dialogue around high-risk drinking, at a minimum it is worth exploring a variety of doors that can open to meaningful conversation and action.
At United Educators (UE), an insurer dedicated solely to serving educational institutions, we invest extensive resources in prevention programs across a wide array of risks. Student safety is a primary part of our mission because we believe that educational institutions are best served when they are able to retain their primary focus on academics.
Based on UE data, there is no question that prudent campus administrators need to pay attention to students’ use of alcohol. In a recent study of student claims, we found that students drinking alcohol excessively sustained or caused others to sustain a range of injuries, including assaults, mental and physical health issues, slips and falls, and auto and other types of accidents. In 10% of these incidents, the injury was so serious that the injured student or the family pursued legal action against the institution seeking monetary recovery. Our study revealed that, when comparing the cost of student claims involving alcohol to those that did not, the average cost of alcohol-related claims was 25% higher. view chart
As the chart demonstrates, the highest number of incidents involved assaults with three-quarters being sexual assaults. The largest dollar amounts related to mental and physical health issues, such as alcohol poisoning, hospitalizations, drinking deaths, and suicide, and slips and falls, typically from a window, balcony, or rooftop. A stunning 11 slip and fall incidents resulted in student fatalities.
In light of this data, and recognizing the human tragedy involved with these claims, UE has become a strong advocate for both alcohol prevention programming and training on intervention. We know that even the best prevention programs are not failsafe; responding quickly in the event of a dangerous situation with alcohol can—and does—save lives.
Last year we began a collaboration with OTC to bring their proven alcohol education programming to UE member institutions. We know that this impressive program plays an essential role in managing alcohol use on campus. Beyond prevention, we encourage administrators to educate and prepare students and appropriate staff members to intervene when a student using alcohol is approaching danger.
As we go into the 2010-2011 academic year, administrators should continue to drive home prevention messages through comprehensive alcohol education programs. And to avoid the outcomes we see all too regularly at UE, special emphasis should be placed on ensuring that students and staff understand the strong correlation between alcohol use and tragic outcomes such as sexual assault, serious physical and mental health issues, and slips and falls. Training those who have the best opportunity to intervene with a student using alcohol (RAs, buildings and grounds, housekeeping, fellow students, etc.) on how to spot potentially dangerous situations and take action is essential.
There’s always much on administrators’ minds as they head into a new year, and I hope that administrators don’t underplay, or overlook , the importance of alcohol prevention AND intervention. Setting the stage early in students’ academic careers sets the stage for a productive, safe, education.
The first year of college is both an exciting and scary time for students. Entering freshmen who recently graduated from high school now find themselves on the threshold of adulthood, facing major life decisions that will direct the course of their academic, professional, and personal lives for years to come.
Many of these new students are on their own for the first time in their lives. The supports—and the strictures—of home are now strangely absent, or at least diminished by distance. This makes the first fall term a time of newly found freedom, but also a time of indecision and doubt.
Of central concern to entering students are the decisions they will make about alcohol consumption.
Unfortunately, most first-year college students arrive on campus believing
that high-risk alcohol use is the norm. Wanting to fit in, and being free of parental control for the first time, many of these students can be led into a pattern of alcohol use that increases their risk of death, serious injury, academic failure, and other negative consequences. According to surveys conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health, about one-fifth of college students did not drink heavily when they were in high school but begin to do so once they enter college.
At the same time, students who began high-risk drinking while in high school too often find a college or university environment that appears to give tacit approval to their drinking. These students may be told during orientation week that their new school does not condone underage or high-risk drinking, but they receive a very different message from the day-to-day reality of an undemanding academic schedule, big, unsupervised parties, easy access to bars, and cheap or free alcohol. As is always the case, actions speak louder than words.
This is where campus administrators come in—not just student affairs officials, but administrators from every academic and administrative department on campus. Environmental management is not only about alcohol control policies and stricter enforcement, though that is certainly an important component. Fundamentally, this prevention approach is about college officials working together to build the type of campus community that most people, including students, want to live, study, and work in.
Entering students are greatly helped in enjoying a successful academic career, and in making the right choices about drinking, if they are embraced by a welcoming community that is value-centered, demanding in its expectations, yet highly supportive. Students need to learn—and to experience—that they are part of a community where an academic focus, responsible and healthy decision making, and care for others are the norm.