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news
New policy seeks
to prevent student drinking
By Alex Roman
Summer On-line Forty-Niner
Last fall Adrian
Heideman, a freshman at Cal State Chico, died of alcohol poisoning
while trying to drink an entire bottle of brandy at a fraternity
party. This fall, a new policy will go into effect system
wide to prevent deaths like Heideman's from happening again.
While skeptics
in the rehabilitation field said they think the program will
fall short of solving the problem, the policy was introduced
and passed by the California State University system last
month.
Chancellor Charles
B. Reed introduced the CSU system's new alcohol policy, which
will effect more than 368,000 students at 22 campuses throughout
the state. However, with no universal system in place, universities
will be forced to implement their own programs and hope that
they work.
"It's a comprehensive
program that would involve the enforcement of existing policy,
educating students on what those policies are and making sure
they know there will be consistent enforcement," said
Ken Swisher, spokesman for the Chancellor's Office.
While there are
general guidelines put in place by the new program, it is
not set in stone as to what campuses will do to stop drinking
or if they'll ever be able to stop drinking on college campuses
at all.
"Our whole
approach is environmental management," said Rene Twigg,
director of Student Health Services at Cal State Long Beach.
"The whole idea is that you're not going to knock this
down by putting up one poster or talking to one student. It
has to be pervasive throughout the campus and handled with
a number of people in the area responding to it."
Twigg is in charge
of implementing the $50,000 program, which will begin this
fall. The Chancellor's Office and Cal State Long Beach received
the promise of funds from President Robert Maxson right away.
They plan to split the funds for the program down the middle.
CSULB is using
the Chancellor's recommendation as an outline for their program,
which will include an advisory committee.
"We'll be
using intervention and treatment for those students who already
have problems, as well as identification of those people and
giving them treatment options," said Twigg. "Well
also give them some referrals to some professional help either
on or off campus."
CSU's policy comes
at a time when the use of alcohol on campus is higher than
any other drug use including tobacco, according to a 1999
survey done by Core, a program created out as a reaction to
the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1996.
The study which
sampled 65,033 undergraduate students from two and four year
universities found that more than 85 percent of those students
said that they have had drank an alcoholic beverage within
the year and more than 73 percent had a drink within the month.
Because of the
prevalence of alcohol on campus, Keith Bennett, rehabilitation
services supervisor for the Department of Health and Human
Services for the City of Long Beach, said he is somewhat critical
of the program.
"I think that
it has to do with a trend ? a fad that young people go through
because they think that's what they have to do to be part
of the 'in' crowd," said Bennett. "In this day and
age we have a lot of pressures. Academia can cause you to
pick up a drink if you're not in the right state of mind."
Bennett said he
believes that alcohol policies like the one CSU implemented
are all well and good, but the problem lies outside the campus
as well as on campus.
Kimberly Lister-Gutierrez,
a counselor for the Department of Health and Human Services,
said she agrees with Bennett that the problem extends further
than on campus.
"When someone
is addicted to drugs and alcohol, the alcohol and drugs is
just one issue," said Lister-Gutierrez. "There are
other things that are happening like emotional problems, family
problems, school problems and social problems that need to
be addressed."
Both Bennett and
Lister-Gutierrez are wary that harm reduction, simply trying
to teach the harms of drinking, will not be enough to help
solve the problem.
University officials
meanwhile feel that it is not a feasible idea to end alcohol
use on campus altogether. In fact, alcohol sales at places
such as The Nugget and The Pyramid are expected to continue
because the university said that it is sold responsibly.
"We don't
want to stop all students from drinking, that's a choice that
they'll make on their own," said Twigg. "We just
want students to do it responsibly, there's nothing in the
policy that says 'don't drink.'"
Bennett said that
this ideal is a problem.
"I wouldn't
use harm reduction," said Bennett. "That was part
of treatment back in the '40s and '50s, when people thought
waning someone off alcohol would help. There are some people
that can do that, but what about those people with addictive
personalities and serious alcohol problems?"
The Alcohol Policies
and Prevention Committee's report is divided into six parts,
which will constitute the system's programs. These include;
making students aware of policies, notifying students what
the consequences are if those policies are violated, education
and prevention programs, training, intervention and treatment,
assessment of the program and student behavior and finding
new resources and making them available to students.
While Bennett applauded
CSU's plan, he also spoke about ideas that would make the
program more successful.
"I think it
would be most effective if you let the students implement
their own program and sell that idea to the staff," said
Bennett. "Also, I think they may want to consider getting
somebody from the outside community that does not have a Ph.D.,
a person who might have lived through this or has some extensive
firsthand knowledge of the problem could be very beneficial."
Bennett spoke from
personal experience.
"I've been
there, I'm going on more than 20 years of being clean and
sober," he said. "I can tell you the same things
as any other doctor or professional in the field, but I could
tell you those things with more passion and emotion since
I lived it."
Because of the
hurried nature of trying to put the new policy into effect
on campus, the advisory committee and the specifics of the
program will still be getting worked out when the new school
year starts.
"We're going
to be taking advantage of the momentum we now got to do something
that can impact students in a positive way," said Twigg.
Bennett said the
reality of a program that may actually help students is at
least two years away, which is coincidentally the time when
campuses will have to report their progress to the Chancellor's
Office.
"Most pilot
programs take a good two years to get going depending on who
is in charge and who is implementing it," said Bennett.
"Alcohol is a self-medicator and many times people don't
realize the seriousness of the problem until they're hooked,
so it will take at least a couple of years to show some results."
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