Virginia Commonwealth University

The Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Office of Health Promotion implements a multilayered alcohol and other drug program that focuses on prevention, early intervention, and treatment and referral. The annual needs assessment using the National College Health Assessment (NCHA) drives the program and serves as the foundation of the prevention component, a campuswide social norms marketing campaign. Between 2002 and 2004, this campaign was associated with a 19 percent increase in healthy perceptions about drinking (i.e., the perception that VCU students have only 0–4 drinks with alcohol per outing). Intervention services include a personalized online assessment that utilizes VCU NCHA data to provide personalized feedback on alcohol and other drug use and norms. Individual counseling and a relapse prevention group are also available.

In an effort to maximize healthy alcohol and other drug perceptions, this grant funding allowed VCU to conduct research on small-group social norming with all of its athletics teams and fi rst-year orientation classes using “clickers.” Clickers are audience response systems that provide immediate anonymous feedback to participants. Materials related to VCU’s projects are available free at http://www.yourstrategy.org and include PowerPoint presentations with instructor notes and information on clicker systems. During the grant period, hands-on experience using clickers was provided at six national conferences, reaching over 1,000 campus professionals. Preliminary findings show that a 20-minute intervention enhanced by the use of clickers was associated with a 30 percent increase in students believing that “most VCU students drink 0-4 drinks when they go out.”