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Article Excerpt
Abstract
The purpose of the evaluation was to examine the process that two campuses went through as a result of implementing alcohol abuse strategies. Specifically, the evaluation focused on the implementation and administrative experiences of those charged with preventing alcohol abuse on each campus. The results suggest that the evidence-based prevention grant program is a valuable tool for pushing campuses with prevention infrastructure forward.
An institution's infrastructure is a key element in the successful adoption of new practices.
Introduction
The challenge of institutions of higher education ameliorating the harm associated with high-risk student behavior is illuminated by a lawsuit claiming negligence by the University of Wisconsin--LaCrosse. A UW-LaCrosse student passed away on April 9, 2003 after falling in the Mississippi River following a night of heavy drinking on his twenty-first birthday (2004, August 31). The student's parents are suing claiming the University encourages heavy drinking through its programs and policies. The University had already engaged in alcohol education along with programs such as safe rides to and from local businesses late at night. A conundrum emerges for the university. The university supported safe rides and other programs to help ensure the safety of students, yet stands accused of aiding heavy alcohol use due to the existence of a program that helps intoxicated students return to campus. This situation illuminates how it is no longer enough for institutions to do something, without evidence that an action functions to positively ameliorate harm associated with heavy alcohol use.
Prominent media attention and scholarship point toward alcohol abuse on college campuses as a pressing public health concern laced by institutions of higher education (Wechsler, Dowdall & Maenner, 1998). As indicated in the case of the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse, university leaders are charged with addressing student alcohol use due both to public health concerns and increasing legal liability (Bickel & Lake, 2001). The problem of student alcohol use is displayed by findings that there is increasing heavy, abusive alcohol use by college students and in the assertion that up to 1,400 college students die each year due to alcohol related incidents (NIAAA, 2002; Hingston, Heeren, Zakocs, Kopstein, & Wechsler, 2002). Most concerning is the finding that students who attend college see an increase in heavy use that is not equaled by their non-college attending peers (O'Malley & Johnston, 2002). The negative consequences academically, socially and individually have a vast impact on the culture of what it is to be a college student (Perkins, 2002). Equipping university leaders to address student alcohol use means having them understand the human capital lost by college students related to alcohol use and providing them with tools to ameliorate the associated harm (Powell & Wechsler, 2003).
Literature Review
Program and policy efforts to ameliorate alcohol use and its negative consequences in higher education are increasingly reported on in academic journals. Program literature can be characterized as trying to reduce student demand for alcohol (Wechsler, Seibring, Liu & Ahl, 2004). Among approaches working to reduce student demand for alcohol, strategies with evidence of efficacy include brief intervention and alcohol skills training involving normative feedback. In comparison to program efforts, policy approaches are more likely to limit access to alcohol or create supportive environments for health behavior. Brief interventions, or those programs involving one or two sessions with students, are programs consistently showing efficacy when evaluated in the higher education setting (McNally & Palfai, 2003). Brief intervention approaches reappearing in the literature include programs based upon skill building, attitude change, and feedback to students (Waiters, Bennett & Noto, 2000; NIAAA, 2002; NIAAA, 2002b). Brief programs that are based upon education and abstinence have shown far less effectiveness (Waiters, Bennett & Noto, 2000). In general approaches that focus on moderation of consumption are more effective than those based on prohibition (Krohn & Pyc, 2000). The specific brief programs that have been evaluated and shown evidence of effectiveness include screening and non-confrontational interventions, screening and brief intervention, challenging alcohol expectancy and cognitive behavior skill building programs. Longer more intensive formats of cognitive behavior skill building and feedback programs such as Alcohol Skills Training Program have also shown efficacy among college students (Baer, Kivlahan, Blume, McKnight, & Marlatt, 2001; Dimeff, Baer, Kivlahan, & Marlatt, 1999; Kivlahan, Marlatt, Fromme, Coppel & Williams, 1990).
Background and Objectives
In August 2002 the Illinois Higher Education Center (IHEC) for Alcohol, Other Drug and Violence Prevention at Eastern Illinois University initiated a grant competition targeted at institutions of higher education in the state of Illinois. This grant competition called for institutions to propose, implement, and evaluate alcohol prevention strategies that were based upon empirical evidence. With funding supported by the Illinois Department of Human Services, the evaluation was commissioned to examine the experience of two of the five grantees that ultimately submitted successful applications for evidence-based program implementation. IHEC commissioned this evaluation as a means of documenting the experiences of campuses as they work to implement programs and practices for alcohol abuse prevention in the collegiate setting that have been shown, through outcomes evaluation, to have efficacy.
The evidence-based prevention grant program is an outgrowth of a programs and practice survey conducted by IHEC in conjunction with the Center for Prevention Research and Development at the University of Illinois in the spring of 2002 (Wall, 2002b). The survey of programs and practices indicated that among institutions of higher education in Illinois, dedicated staff time to alcohol abuse prevention was limited, as were the different types of prevention activities. As the survey data collection was being completed, in April of 2002, the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) issued a landmark report entitled "A Call To Action."...
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