St. Cloud State University

Located along the Mississippi River in St. Cloud, Minnesota, St. Cloud State University (SCSU) was founded in 1869 as a normal school and granted university status in 1975. With a fall 2010 enrollment of 18,319, including 1,906 graduate students, SCSU is the largest member of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system and the second largest university in Minnesota. The population of St. Cloud was 65,842 in 2010.

Background

According to Robert Reff, assistant dean of students for chemical health and outreach programming at St. Cloud State University, neighborhood groups around the SCSU campus have been meeting for about 15 years.

“The Neighborhood University Community Council is a particularly active group. It was organized in the aftermath of some student disturbances that took place about 11 years ago. That group was our existing coalition, with a focus on solving problems in terms of neighborhood and university relations. But it wasn’t really taking into account the bigger picture, so in 2009 we applied for and received a Department of Education grant to expand and strengthen our coalition and use an environmental management approach to reduce student drinking. We realized that if we were going to advance to the next level we needed to get the right group of people involved. What really made the difference was that the president of the university and the mayor of the city agreed to co-chair what we called the St. Cloud Community Alliance,” said Reff, who serves as project director for the Community Alliance.

With the president and the mayor at the head of the Community Alliance, signifying its importance, others quickly signed on, including the city attorney, chief of police, representatives from the Downtown Council and the Hospitality Association, as well health care representatives, neighborhood residents, students, and business leaders.

According to the Community Alliance plan, it is utilizing a best practice approach in forming a community coalition. “The unique part about this work is that the specific goals and work of the group are determined by all involved. For this reason, participation by all is critical. We outlined a basic plan based on the work of other coalitions. This is a starting point by which we can form a plan specific to our community.

“The primary goal of the coalition is to reduce the incidence of high-risk drinking and its related negative consequences in the St. Cloud community. High-risk drinking is defined as excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages that increases the risk of experiencing negative consequences not only for those who are drinking but also for the community. Examples of possible negative effects of high-risk drinking for those who drink include vandalism, property damage, illegal activity, draining of community resources, getting into fights, car accidents, or death from alcohol. Possible negative consequences from high-risk drinking to the community include:

1. City Resources: Increased need for police and ER personnel and resources
2. Neighborhoods: Increased noise, trash, and vandalism
3. Businesses: Disruptive patrons, difficulties recruiting new employees, increased costs for cleaning, security, and legal liabilities
4. Educational: Negative perceptions (e.g., party school image), difficulties in recruiting high caliber students, poor grades, increased absences, career implications for students, and students’ futures
5. Interpersonal: Impact on loved ones and family costs of health care”

The Community Alliance recognizes that it is critical that the community take a collaborative approach to change the campus and community environment in which college students live, learn, and socialize. Reff said that he has been heavily influenced by the work of the Higher Education Center for Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Violence Prevention in advancing an environmental management approach to high-risk drinking prevention.

“It was clear that we had a community problem in St. Cloud, but we did not have an organized approach for dealing with high-risk and underage drinking. About three years prior to the development of the Alliance the university completely cleaned house based on best practices to revamp its alcohol and drug code, started enforcing off-campus student behavior, and implemented interventions for students who indicated problems as well as prevention activities. Once we did that we realized that it was time to really engage the environment beyond the university,” said Reff.

According to Reff, one of the benefits of using an environmental approach was that it empowered community members to realize that it could make a difference and it shifted the focus from blaming the university to making the community better. “It is no longer just about bad students doing bad things. Now it’s about a broad range of issues, such as how businesses can make more money in the downtown, how residents can have a quiet neighborhood, and how property values can increase. It gives stakeholders a reason to be involved. All of us have a stake in solving these problems and all of us will have rewards if we work together,” explained Reff.

Alliance Accomplishments

The Community Alliance had a number of successes early on, even before it held its first meeting. According to Reff, the very act of organizing people to be a part of the Alliance led to discussions, which led to changes in local ordinances. For example, St. Cloud adopted a social host ordinance before the Alliance organized in a formal sense. As people started talking together a synergy evolved.

One of the problems that concerned Alliance members was the high number of citations for alcohol consumption for minors. St. Cloud had averaged between 1,000 and 1,200 minor consumptions citywide for 18- to 21-year-olds, students and nonstudents alike. In contrast, St. Paul, a much larger city, averaged 280 such citations annually.

“In early meetings the Alliance leadership team said that we needed to fix this. We found that the city of St. Cloud—especially the university—is a destination for opening weekend, homecoming, and other times a year. For example, there were about 300 citations for opening weekend citywide. But only about 40 percent of the violations were by our students. In fact, people come from all over this state for this party weekend,” said Reff.

In the past, violators could just pay their fine and that was the end of it. But the Alliance wanted to intervene in this behavior, so it created a diversion program that is operated by the city and the university. Now tickets for minor consumption in the city of St. Cloud have two options: an appearance before a judge or participation in the Impact diversion class at the university.

“If violators go before a judge the judge can order whatever the judge wants. If they complete the diversion class, the violation does not go on the record, which is a huge bonus for our students. Now those who choose to come to party in St. Cloud and break the law have to come back to St. Cloud, pay for the class, or pay for the judicial appearance and remedy the situation here. That, coupled with our social host ordinance, makes St. Cloud less attractive as a place to party underage,” said Reff.

Evaluation

The Alliance engages in both internal and external evaluation. According to Reff, the internal evaluation involves talking with the Alliance members to learn what they would like to do differently and what their needs are.

“The Alliance is at a place now where the members can speak sophisticatedly about what changes they would like to make,” said Reff.

“The external evaluation includes emergency room data on the number of 18- to 25-years-olds who would be admitted due to high levels of intoxication. When we first started getting the Alliance together we met with the director of the ER, nursing staff, and hospital social workers. We learned that during the first four to six weeks of the semester they set aside a special area in the ER they called ‘alcohol row’ for these intoxicated young people, because of the sheer volume. We then looked at the factors leading up to those levels of intoxication and what environmental measures might have an impact. This year the ER reported that admissions for alcohol intoxication as their primary admit for 18- to 25-year-olds were down by 50 percent over the previous years. We think that the social host ordinance and increased enforcement played a role in that reduction,” said Reff.

The following chart illustrates the drop in the drinking levels of SCSU students:

Recommendations

For Reff, an important factor for the Alliance to be a catalyst for change in St. Cloud has been having the right people at the table and following a broad environmental management approach.

“If you don’t take that approach I think you limit how successful you can be. There is only so much you can do just focusing on your campus. I think the reason the environmental approach works so well for coalitions is because students do not make distinctions regarding campus and off-campus life. It’s not like crossing the Great Wall,” said Reff.

For More Information

For more information about the St. Cloud Community Alliance, visit www.stcloudstate.edu/scca/.