Alcohol's dangers stressed

10/9/2008

The Hattiesburg American

By Valerie Wells

"Everyone needs to know when it goes too far," said Reagan Nelson, a freshman at the University of Southern Mississippi.

She completed the university's AlcoholEdu program for incoming freshmen about drinking, a new program that Southern Miss now requires of all freshmen. Nelson, a nursing major from Hattiesburg, already learned a lot of the same information in high school, but she found some useful information in the online AlcoholEdu.

"I sat down and did it all in one night," she said. "It showed what to do around someone who's had too much drink and when to call the ambulance."

AlcoholEdu is but one tool the university uses to shine the light on alcohol issues on campus.

This is Collegiate Alcohol Awareness Week at the university, and Student Health Services is reaching out to spread the word about the perils of getting wasted. An information booth in the Thad Cochran center had pamphlets and goodies to promote wiser drinking habits.

The university's attention was focused on the issue of problem drinking earlier this semester when an alleged hazing incident in late August at the Kappa Sigma house sent two students to the hospital with alcohol poisoning. Southern Miss revoked the fraternity's charter.

At other schools, administrators are considering a proposal to legalize alcohol for more students. At least 100 university presidents across the country have signed the Amethyst Initiative, a call to lower the drinking age to 18. Doing so might take the mystique off binge drinking, the signing presidents have said. Southern Miss President Martha Saunders has not signed the initiative and wants to further study it. Meanwhile, university police say they enforce the "no open consumption" policy at football games and other events with spoken warnings or a written citation that gets forwarded to the dean of students. Enforcing the policy for students as opposed to recognizing visitors on campus complicates matters for police, said Chief Bob Hopkins.

"We're present at most student events," Hopkins said.

If a party has amplified music and requires paperwork, it also requires the presence of a law enforcement officer. If there's not a cop there, chances are it is not an approved gathering.

The most recent figures from the university show that 281 liquor law violations were reported in 2007, compared to 75 in 2006 and 52 in 2005. These didn't include DUIs.

The AlcoholEdu class that all freshmen like Nelson had to take this year takes a couple of hours online and is part of the freshman orientation process.

"The program is personalized to each student depending on their age, sex and drinking patterns. It gives information for everyone from the abstainer to the heavy drinker," said Jodi Tate, health education coordinator at Southern Miss

Many freshmen finished the component early, said Joe Paul, vice president of student affairs.

"It's encouraging," he said.