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By Sara Lipka
September 4, 2008
As college presidents engage in a national debate on the legal drinking age, several higher-education associations gathered on Wednesday to honor individual campuses' commitments to reduce underage and binge drinking.
"Every president and chancellor I know considers alcohol abuse ... one of the most complex issues they face on campus," said Timothy J. McDonough, a spokesman for the American Council on Education. "Presidential leadership on this issue is extremely critical."
That's why ACE and other organizations created the Presidential Leadership Award, whose first recipient they announced on Wednesday.
The inaugural award recognizes Jonathan C. Gibralter, president of Frostburg State University, for his "success in promoting a vibrant intellectual and social climate that de-emphasizes the role of alcohol."
Mr. Gibralter's work with student leaders and municipal law-enforcement authorities stood out among the efforts of 17 other presidents nominated for the honor, said representatives of the organizations that presented the award. Besides ACE, they are the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges; the American College Personnel Association; Naspa-Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education; and United Educators Insurance, a major insurer of colleges.
The honor came with a $50,000 grant from Outside the Classroom, a private company that works with colleges to prevent alcohol abuse, and the Gordie Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the same issue. Both also helped to select the winner.
Focus on 'Best Practices'
The timing of the award, which has been in the works since 2006, was unrelated to the recent hubbub over the Amethyst Initiative, a campaign by college presidents to reconsider the drinking age, said Brandon Busteed, founder of Outside the Classroom. But he called the coincidence fortunate.
"There's nothing more or better that we could be doing right now than to put the focus ... on creating visibility around best practices," Mr. Busteed said. "If this is just a conversation about the drinking age, we will all have failed miserably."
Mr. Gibraltar declined last month to join the Amethyst Initiative, and he reiterated that position on Wednesday. He does not want to change the drinking age, he said; he wants to change the culture of alcohol in college.
"We refuse to throw our hands up in exasperation," Mr. Gibraltar said. "Instead we're attacking the problem from many different angles."
When he became president of Frostburg State, in western Maryland, in 2006, Mr. Gibraltar began communicating with students about alcohol abuse candidly and frequently, at orientations and in the student newspaper. He instituted the same penalties for alcohol violations off the campus as on its grounds, and he created an Alcohol Task Force of faculty and staff members, students, and community members to tackle such issues as and bar specials, which he said encouraged binge drinking, and absentee landlords of off-campus residences.
Over the past two years, the university has planned alcohol-free late-night activities and started a Safe Rides shuttle service for its 5,000 students. Its students' off-campus alcohol citations in 2007-8 were down 40 percent from the previous year.
In accepting the award, Mr. Gibraltar urged colleges and universities to consider high-risk drinking as serious an issue as campus security, and to allocate resources accordingly. Institutions need to hire and train more student-affairs officials, counselors, and police officers, he said.
Frostburg State plans to use its $50,000 grant to reward bar owners who help promote responsible drinking and to finance programs developed by students to counter alcohol abuse, Mr. Gibraltar said.
He wants to broaden the Amethyst Initiative's focus on the drinking age and pay more attention to other strategies to reduce binge drinking.
"It is critical," he said, "that this national dialogue be sustained."
Other Universities Recognized
The higher-education associations that presented the award did not take formal positions on the Amethyst Initiative on Wednesday.
They did, however, recognize the efforts of other institutions nominated for the award. The University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, for example, worked to spruce up a local, bar-laden neighborhood known as "the Strip"; Rockland Community College built a recreation center for alcohol-free entertainment; and the University of Virginia supported the growth of three peer-education groups on drinking behavior.
Several of the institutions, including Frostburg State, offer students Outside the Classroom's online training program, AlcoholEdu. The company said that was not a requirement for nomination.
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