FY 2001 Awardees: Grant Competition to Prevent High-Risk Drinking or Violent Behavior Among College Students

The U.S. Department of Education is pleased to announce this year’s awardees under the Grant Competition to Prevent High-Risk Drinking and Violent Behavior Among College Students. Of the 107 proposals reviewed by 10 independent panels of peer reviewers, 16 proposals were funded. These campus- and community-based organizations have been funded to develop or enhance, implement, and evaluate strategies to prevent high-risk drinking and/or violent behavior among college students.

California State University-Chico
Social Norming and Breath Sampling: An Alcohol Harm Reduction and Prevention Program for First-Year Students
Project Director: Walt Schafer, Ph.D.

This project intends to reduce total alcohol consumption, high-risk drinking, and alcohol-related negative consequences among first-year students. The Campus Reality Check Campaign is designed to accomplish this by implementing a social marketing campaign through advertisements in the student newspaper, posters throughout campus (particularly residence halls), and biweekly e-mail messages, and BAC interviews of randomly selected students by teams of registered nurses and undergraduate peer educators.

Colorado State University
Drug Court as a Systems-Based Model for High-Risk Drinking on Campus
Project Director: Cheryl Asmus, Ph.D.

The goals of this project are to reduce the number of serious incidents resulting from high-risk drinking; reduce the number of dismissals of students who reach that level of discipline due to their problematic behavior resulting from high-risk drinking; involve and coordinate the various offices and programs on campus involved in prevention; adapt, implement, evaluate, and report on the feasibility of developing drug court systems for other campus in the nation.

The Governor’s Prevention Partnership
Creating Campus Learning Communities to Reduce High-Risk Drinking
Project Director: Lisa Newell

This project is designed to develop, implement, and support science-based alcohol prevention programs that will have an impact on high-risk drinking behavior of first-year college students in Connecticut. The project’s primary goals are to reduce alcohol use in first-year students at three Connecticut institutions of higher education (IHEs); build the capacity of selected IHEs to utilize effective, science-based prevention strategies; and create a learning community to disseminate information and share experiences relating to best practices in prevention.

Grand Valley State University
The Role of Social Norms in the Use and Abuse of Alcohol and Related Substance: A Communication Approach
Project Director: Nancy L. Harper, Ph.D.

The goal of this project is to reduce high-risk drinking by changing students’ misperception that excessive drinking is the norm at the university, and by changing the culture that accepts high-risk drinking as inevitable. Student-designed communication will be the primary vehicle for bringing about these changes. Mass media campaigns also will be developed through a coalition of faculty, staff, students, and a community group that targets underage drinking.

Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Most Valuable Players: A Project Reinforcing Norms, Correcting Misperceptions, and Reducing High-Risk Drinking Among Student-Athletes
Project Director: H. Wesley Perkins, Ph.D./David W. Craig, Ph.D.

This project proposes a comprehensive campaign to promote positive norms, reduce harmful misperceptions about student drinking norms, and ultimately reduce high-risk drinking among student-athletes. Major activities include a mass media campaign to reduce myths about athletes, an orientation program for student-athletes, creation of student-athlete peer educators, social norms workshops for staff and student-athlete peer educators, and a social norms education workshop for alcohol policy offenders.

Institute for Public Strategies
Community-Centered Project to Reduce Off-Campus Drinking by Underage Students Through Social Norms-Supported, Policy-Focused Environmental Management
Project Director: Carol Pope

This project proposes to create a community-based collaborative that will work to change policies that contribute to underage college drinking by Montana State University students in the Bozeman community. This will be accomplished through a policy-focused environmental management approach that will use social norms data from the community to build public support for policy change.

Michigan State University
"Celebrate with Knowledge"
Project Director: Dennis Martell, Ph.D.

The focus of this project is to prevent excessive alcohol consumption during significant celebratory events in the lives of college students, including 21st birthdays, tailgate parties, and graduations. The goals of the project include exploring celebratory behavior patterns and factors influencing drinking patterns; evaluating the effectiveness of using 21st birthday cards as a prevention strategy; and developing, implementing, and evaluating a peer prevention media campaign to reduce high-risk drinking.

Mississippi State University
Changing Misperception: A Comprehensive Approach to Alter High-Risk Drinking Perceptions and Behaviors
Project Director: Stuart L. Usdan, Ph.D.

This project offers a multifaceted approach guided by social norms theory to reduce the prevalence of high-risk drinking among first-year students at Mississippi State University. The three main components of the project are peer education programs in the residence halls; an interactive Web site to provide alcohol reduction messages; and alcohol-free social activities for students. The project will involve personnel, support, resources, and expertise from campus departments such as the Center for Alcohol and Drug Education, Division of Student Affairs, and School of Education.

San Diego State University
C-CAPP’s Community Oriented Policing Project
Project Director: John D. Clapp, Ph.D.

This project will increase coordination of area law enforcement efforts targeting underage drinking and impaired driving among students at San Diego State University. Goals of the project include increasing students’ understanding of alcohol laws and campus policies, and increasing students’ perceived risk of getting arrested for illicit behavior. The theory-based project includes the use of random student telephone and Web-based surveys and tracking key social indicator data.

Shenandoah University
Project Success: Making the Connection
Project Director: Judith A. Landes

The outcome of this proposed project is to change the normative behavior on campus, specifically with first-year students, in an attempt to promote healthy choices regarding the use of alcohol, thus promoting academic success. Several objectives of the project include promoting accurate and healthy attitudes and behaviors among new students; reducing negative consequences faced by first-year students; promoting the willingness, skills, and application of active involvement by faculty members; and gaining increased consistency and collaboration among campus and community stakeholders.

University of Arizona
Reducing and Preventing High-Risk Drinking and Related Violence Among First-Year University of Arizona Students Through Environmental Strategies
Project Director: Saundra Taylor, Ph.D.

The purpose of this project is to develop solutions for preventing and reducing high-risk drinking among first-year students by enhancing, implementing, and rigorously evaluating environmental strategies. This will be achieved by correcting misperceptions of peer alcohol use; reducing campus and community mixed messages about alcohol use, policy, and enforcement; engaging the Campus and Community Coalition for Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Prevention; and disseminating findings and materials nationally to researchers and program practitioners.

University of California-Berkeley
Participatory Action for Campus Transformation
Project Director: Steve Lustig

This project is an effort to reduce underage college student drinking and associated problems among new students at the University of California-Berkeley, and to promote safe, healthy social environments in which new students make decisions about drinking. The project is based on two strategies: a comprehensive environmental risk management approach and a community mobilization model to develop students’ capacity to assume responsibility for the safety of their social environments.

University of Idaho
Preventive Strategies to Address High-Risk Drinking of First-Year College Students
Project Director: Sharon Fritz, Ph.D.

The purpose of this project is to develop prevention strategies to address the high-risk drinking behavior among first-year college students residing in living groups (residence halls, fraternities and sororities) on the University of Idaho campus. The project’s goals include the establishment of a more accurate perception among first-year college students of student alcohol use and a reduction in the amount of drinking among first-year college students.

University of North Florida
Social Norms, Tailored Feedback, and Combined Prevention Strategies to Reduce High-Risk Drinking Among First-Year Residential University Students
Project Director: Pamela S. Chally, Ph.D.

The goal of this project is to prevent the initiation and reduce the frequency of binge drinking among a cohort of first-year residential students throughout a two-year period while at college by implementing and comparing a social norms (environmental) strategy, tailored feedback (individual) strategy, and combined strategy. Objectives of the project include revising and expanding previously developed prevention strategies, evaluating and comparing the effects of the new strategies, and collaborating with a campus task force to enhance or develop university alcohol policies.

University of South Carolina
A Randomized Study of Two Approaches to Reducing High-Risk Drinking During College Students' 21st Birthday Celebrations
Project Director: Rick Gant

The primary goal of the project is to evaluate the impact of using two different kinds of birthday cards designed to prevent high-risk drinking during 21st birthday celebrations. The project should be of considerable interest to prevention practitioners and researchers. In addition to providing novel and important data related to 21st birthday celebrations, the project will lead to an increased understanding of two major theories (i.e., social norms and decision-making) commonly used to design programs to prevent high-risk drinking among college students.

University of Virginia
GEM: Preventing High-Risk Drinking Through Greek Environmental Management
Project Director: Susan Bruce

The primary goal of the GEM Project is to improve the health and safety of fraternity and sorority members at the University of Virginia. Components of the project include those related to education, environment, enforcement, and early intervention. Each component of the project will utilize the social norms approach and students are integrally involved in program development and delivery.