HEC/News-Announcements

The Higher Education Center is pleased to make the following announcements:

1) Revised ACHA-NCHA Released

The American College Health Association (ACHA) is pleased to announce the release of the ACHA-NCHA II. The revised survey is now available following a thorough pilot testing process.

While the general categories of information for which data are collected remain the same between the surveys, a number of the original survey questions have been modified and new questions have been added to monitor a variety of health constructs. Specific revisions include updated lists of illegal drugs, contraceptive methods, and vaccines. New items have been added to capture sleep behaviors, self-injury, and the use/abuse of prescription drugs. Finally, while the current ACHA-NCHA has been useful in helping us to measure depression among college students, the ACHA-NCHA II has been expanded to capture a number of other mental health issues.

From this point on, schools will use the ACHA-NCHA II, and the Reference Group Data Report and Executive Summary will be formed using data from this survey. An exception will be made for existing ACHA-NCHA customers with ongoing research or program evaluation needs - they may opt to continue using the original survey; however, a Reference Group Data Report and Executive Summary will not be produced for this version of the survey.

Please note that the ACHA-NCHA II is not appropriate for trend comparison of items from the previous ACHA-NCHA survey. A new baseline for ACHA-NCHA II will be established in the coming year. Directly comparing pre- and post-redesign estimates on similar data points without taking the impact of the redesign into account might lead to an erroneous conclusion. Documentation regarding the results of the pilot study and differences between the instruments is forthcoming.

For more information about the new survey, please visit the ACHA-NCHA II Web site: http://www.acha-ncha.org/sample_survey.html. Questions about the ACHA-NCHA may be directed to Mary Hoban in the ACHA-NCHA Program Office, at mhoban@acha.org or 410-859-1500 x216.

2) Job Opportunities

The following positions were recently posted to the Job Opportunities section of the Center's Web site:

Violence against Women Prevention Program Coordinator
University of Connecticut Women's Center

Coordinator of Health Education and Wellness
Mississippi State University

For more information on these and other recent job postings, please visit the Job Opportunities section of the Center's Web site: http://www.higheredcenter.org/jobs/.