Winona State Freshmen Get Education in Alcohol

9/9/2008

The Post-Bulletin

By John Weiss

WINONA -- When Katelyn Bailey came to Winona State University as a freshmen this fall, she brought her clothes, a bunkbed her father made for her, dorm room decorations and a knowledge of binge drinking.

The first three came from her home, the final one came from the university. For the first time this year, WSU asked incoming freshmen to take a 2.5-hour on-line course to learn about drinking. The goal is not so much to stop students from drinking, because studies show many do drink. Instead, AlcoholEDU tells them it's okay if they decide not to drink or, if they do drink, how much they are really consuming and what the consequences might be.

Bailey, who is from St. Cloud, said when she got the e-mail from WSU early in the summer "I thought it was a joke." But she later did take the course and enjoyed it. It emphasized that "with freedom comes responsibility," she said.

"It was better than sitting in a big classroom and they said 'don't drink, don't drink, don't drink,'" she said. It told her that there's more alcohol in some drinks than many students think, and the effect of a certain number of drinks per hour on a woman her size.

Bailey said she doesn't drink and tries to find things on weekends to do instead of drinking, such as going to movies. But she's happy she got the education. "You are going to make choices, you have to learn that stuff, just to be on the safe side," she said.

Colin McGuire from Rockford, Ill., put off taking AlcoholEDU until he came to the campus. "It was nice to have this education tool," he said. Like Bailey, he didn't think he was being talked down to. "It was a tool for college social life," he said.

That is what WSU wanted them to learn, said Kelli McClintick, WSU health educator. The university didn't require the 1,800 freshmen to take it but strongly encouraged it. About 1,500 did take it. How much they learned, and if it had an effect on their drinking, won't be known for a few years, she said.

What the university does know is that drinking can be a problem.

A survey found 76 percent of college students had a drink in the past 30 days and 48 percent had five or more drinks, which is considered binge drinking, in one sitting in the past two weeks.

"What is alarming to me is the behavior associated with that high-risk drinking," McClintick said. That includes unprotected sex, sexual assault, problems with studies and conduct in the dorms.

WSU is a dry campus and a student found with alcohol has to do community work service for a first offense; they are kicked out of college housing for a second offense.

AlcoholEDU "is no magic bullet," she said. The course informs students about signs for alcohol poisoning and debunks social myths such as that all students drink, McClintick said. They need to know that -- their brains are still developing. "They are in that mentality it's not going to happen to them, they are invincible," she said.

As another way to help students, WSU is looking for more things to do, besides drinking, on nights when traditionally there are a lot of parties, McClintick said. Not everything works. "It has to be cool, it has to be something they want to do and it has to be cheap," she said.

The university began talking about AlcoholEDU before a student drank herself to death late last year, she said, but it's good timing. "We never want to have a death on campus again," she said.