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Online course on effects of drinking is mandatory for admission to 3 N.C. colleges
By Josh Shaffer
July 18, 2007
Chugging. Shots. Beer pong. Togas. Sound fun? How about herpes? Vomit. Hangovers. Expulsion.
Public health officials hope incoming freshmen at N.C. State, Duke and Davidson will see the progression beginning this month when they take a three-hour alcohol course required for admission.
Taught over the Internet, AlcoholEdu introduces students to the science of inebriation and shows how a social lubricant can lead to problems such as sexual assault and social diseases.
Part survey, part test, part lecture, AlcoholEdu is used at more than 500 schools nationwide and required at about 100.
UNC Charlotte doesn't require first-year students to take an alcohol course but will offer another Web-based program to its freshmen seminar classes and Greek organizations. The program, Alcohol 101, already was used for UNCC students who violated the school's alcohol policy.
Queens University of Charlotte includes alcohol education in an orientation session for students.
Some students laugh off alcohol programs as a meaningless chore. But public health advocates say the course braces young students for the newfound freedom and drinking culture that awaits.
"We didn't create it with the goal for all kids to stop drinking," said Aaron White, a Duke professor who helped create AlcoholEdu. "The goal was to create a course that made students aware of the risks, of the science."
AlcoholEdu content
The course is no high school health class with blood-on-the-highway overtones. White said lessons that frighten or preach to students tend to fail.
AlcoholEdu requires an ID number, then starts with a survey, with questions like: How much do you drink? Play drinking games? Black out? How do you buy alcohol underage?
It covers social problems one at a time: binge drinking, date rape, academic failure. Then it calls up a student's survey results and displays on a graph his or her worst night of drunkenness.
"I think our students are very sensitive to the negative effects of alcohol abuse, and that's been a helpful tool in educating them," said Georgia Ringle, a health educator at Davidson.
"They don't like getting sick. They don't like getting in trouble. They don't feel good about missing class or handing in a paper late or having an unfortunate sexual encounter."
Duke sophomore Tommy Gamba said he understands the point of AlcoholEdu, but making it a requirement for enrollment seems excessive and perhaps grandstanding.
"Realistically," he said, "the ability to prevent college students from drinking is practically impossible. The program is good in that it emphasizes the negative sides and safe ways to go about it."
The course includes tidbits that would surprise even a hardened drinker.
A "blackout" doesn't necessarily mean losing consciousness. Rather, after five to 10 drinks, the body can press on without an agile mind and even drive a car. In a "brownout," a drinker needs reminding of how he spent the prior evening.
AlcoholEdu offers scenarios, too, as in the case of fictional Jason, who travels to the beach for his first spring break and returns with dim memories and a rash that proved to be genital herpes.
Another: One group of students drinks alcohol and another group drinks placebos. Both groups say they feel happier and more attractive. The moral: It's all in your head, not the booze.
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