Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Background
After the alcohol poisoning death of freshman Scott Krueger in 1997, MIT's students and administration began an evaluation of the alcohol policies and social climate on campus from a new and intense perspective. The results have included major changes in policies, heightened student awareness about alcohol, a stronger emphasis on MIT community events, increased alcohol education by students and staff, and stricter enforcement of MIT's rules by the university and the Interfraternity Council.

MIT's BASICS (Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students) program is one outgrowth of those changes. It was initiated in September 2001, when all first-year students received an e-mail asking them to participate in an online study. They were directed to a Web site containing a short, multiple-choice questionnaire about their drinking behavior. Students who completed the questionnaire—872 out of some 1,000 freshmen—were each paid $25 for their participation. Then, based on certain criteria in the students' responses, such as frequency of drinking, number of drinks per sitting, and negative consequences experienced from drinking, program administrators identified students they thought would benefit from one-on-one sessions with MIT Medical's specially trained counselors. Of the 75 students who met the screening criteria, 15 agreed to participate in two voluntary and confidential hour-long counseling sessions, for which they were paid an additional $25.

The specific goal of the BASICS program, originally developed at the University of Washington in Seattle, is to reduce risks associated with drinking on college campuses. John Baer, a creator of the BASICS program, says, “MIT is actively promoting the health of students; very few universities are actually screening and recruiting students before they get into trouble.”

Program Summary
The BASICS program is an active collaboration between students and multiple MIT departments, including the Office of Community Development and Substance Abuse; the Mental Health and Urgent Care departments of MIT Medical; the Campus Alcohol Advisory Board; the Office of Student Conduct; the Department of Athletics, Physical Education, and Recreation; Information Services and Technology; and the MIT Card Office.

BASICS is a one-on-one motivational interviewing program offered to any student expressing concern about his or her alcohol use and to those students whose answers to the online survey indicate that they may be engaging in potentially risky drinking behaviors.

Students who complete the online BASICS questionnaire are paid $20 in “Tech Cash” for their participation. Then, based on certain criteria in the students' responses, such as frequency of drinking, number of drinks per sitting, negative consequences experienced from drinking, and whether students expressed concerns about their own use, program administrators screened out students they thought would benefit from one-on-one sessions with MIT Medical's specially trained counselors. Participation in the BASICS intervention is voluntary and participants may withdraw their participation at any time. Those students who meet the screening criteria and agree to participate in two voluntary and confidential hour-long BASICS counseling sessions are now paid an additional $70 in Tech Cash.

The primary objective of the MIT Screening and Brief Intervention (SBI) model is to improve the identification of risk and the administration of early intervention for college student subpopulations that may be at greater risk for abusing alcohol and experiencing the consequences associated with abuse. This objective has been defined by the performance measures that are linked to the program’s outcomes.

By the fall term of 2003, all of the prescreening procedures for the first-year student SBI component of the SBI model had been placed online. The program recorded a 69 percent increase in student participation in the intervention over the previous year (exceeding the 50 percent growth target). Nine percent of those who participated in the SBI program sought counseling within weeks of completing it.

Evaluation
Tracking judicial, campus police, and medical data from 2001 to 2004 (spanning three of the four undergraduate classes) shows that no student who participated in the first-year component of the SBI has been cited or arrested for an alcohol- or other drug-related policy or legal violation, nor have any SBI participants presented at MIT Medical with an alcohol-related injury or for alcohol overdose.

Since spring 2001, MIT began to incorporate SBI as a primary judicial sanction for student violations of the alcohol policy. MIT followed these students to examine recidivism rates associated with each type of sanction imposed. Zero percent of those who received SBI as a sanction had another alcohol or other drug violation, while 15 percent of those who received another form of sanction (e.g., community service, fines) had a second alcohol or other drug violation. Since 2002, no student who has participated in the SBI program after an alcohol-related incident has experienced a second incident of alcohol-related injury or overdose.

To evaluate the effect of the BASICS program, those students who participated in the BASICS program, as well as a random sample of those who did not participate were mailed a brief follow-up questionnaire. Participation in the follow-up survey is voluntary.

The initial goals of the SBI program have been to reduce student alcohol use and the harms associated with excessive use, as well as to reduce the number of disciplinary actions that emerge because of excessive drinking.

Results
The rate of high-risk drinking decreased by 40 percent for MIT students who entered the MIT-SBI program.

In 2004, the program was recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as one of three model alcohol and other drug prevention programs in higher education. The award recognizes innovative and empirically validated programs that effectively address alcohol and other drug issues among college student populations.