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University representatives assemble to fight alcohol abuse.

Updated 12:00 PM ET August 4, 2000
By Tracey Bracco
FSView & Florida Flambeau
Florida State U.
(U-WIRE) TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Intervention and prevention of student alcohol and drug abuse in higher education headlined the "Preventing High Risk Drinking on the College Campus" conference at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton July 26.
Representatives from Florida's universities, including Florida State University and the University of Florida, met for the first time and shared strategies to curb binge drinking and the use of other drugs.
"As you know, across the country alcohol consumption is a huge problem," said Dr. Emanuel Newsome, vice president of student affairs at FAU.
Conference attendees shared with one another the methods used to handle the problem on their respective campuses. Personal ideas and concerns on how to combat alcohol and drug abuse were also introduced.
The overall mission of alcohol and other drug-use prevention and intervention programs is to assist students in graduating, Newsome said.
The number of students who drink heavily outweighs those who don't. One in five students abstain from drinking, while almost 45 percent of students binge drink alcohol, according to last year's Harvard Study.
According to that study, binge drinking is defined as drinking five or more servings of alcohol in one sitting for males and four or more servings for females. Frequent binge drinking is the result of drinking these amounts three times within a two-week period.
"All students are subject to having problems dealing with drugs and alcohol" said Newsome, who added that students are no longer being introduced to alcohol as freshmen, rather they enter college as veterans.
Several attendees of the conference expressed concern that many students' consumption of alcohol was interfering with other parts of their lives.

"Students are in fact using alcohol in ways that interfere with their social and academic lives," conference coordinator Barry Gregory said.
In addition to university representatives, drug expert James McDonough, director of the Florida Office of Drug Control Policy in the Governor's office, and Board of Regents member Dr. Brian Haynes, director of student affairs for the State University System of Florida, were also in attendance.
The first keynote speaker, McDonough, who was appointed by Governor Jeb Bush, said that university leaders should challenge students to understand that the primary reason to attend college is not to learn how to drink.
McDonough said that cutting the demand for alcohol and drugs lies in the creation and implementation of an ethic of strict intolerance for underage drinking.
Gregory, on the other hand, said that he wants to teach students to drink responsibly. While he does not condone underage drinking, Gregory does acknowledge its presence on college campuses.
Since alcohol can affect social and academic performance, Gregory is trying to target students' social skills and teach them how to change their own behavior. He is formulating a study for Fall 2000 that will isolate reasons why students drink and offer them college-life management skills.
While representatives shared similar concerns on alcohol and drug use, they presented varying strategies on how to regulate the problem.
Dan Skiles, director of Health Enhancement at FSU, spoke on media advocacy to curb binge drinking and its effects on local efforts to raise public awareness. Skiles and McDonough have recently joined forces to combat underage and binge drinking.
"Media advocacy can be effective. It gets things done," Skiles said. "Our primary goal is to bring the other people in the community together."

With a $700,000, five-year grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Skiles is focusing on policy changes in the community, including a community-based coalition that advocates the reduction of high-risk drinking.
Skiles also spoke at the conference about Operation Quiet Storm, which is a newly instituted initiative by the Tallahassee Police Department to combat noise and alcohol issues at parties.
"I'd like to see students take a stand," Skiles said.
While student involvement at the conference was minimal, many speakers and representatives are looking toward students for their support and viewpoints.
Haynes presented the BOR's Parental Notification Policy that is approved to begin in fall 2000. Parental Notification, passed on Feb. 17 and 18, states that universities reserve the right to notify the parents of underage students found in violation of laws regarding alcohol and other substances. The policy applies to the ten universities under the SUS.
Other speakers discussed the environmental approach to combating alcoholism and the binge-drinking phenomenon, while even others spoke of social norms campaigns that they are launching on their campuses.
Solidifying the formation of a state university coalition against binge drinking was the main objective of the conference, Gregory said.
"It's challenging to bring people together and to get them to work together," Gregory said.
The next statewide meeting is scheduled for November at UF. Gregory said that his goal for the next meeting is for there to be a formal, public announcement of the formation of the statewide coalition to combat binge drinking and drug abuse.
(C) 2000 FSView & Florida Flambeau via U-WIRE

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