March 21, 2002
Vol. 23, No. 26

CURRENT ISSUE
BACK ISSUES

OTHER RELATED LINKS:

Alcohol & Substance Abuse Programs



Published weekly during the academic year by the Office of Communications and Marketing, 3699 Vestal Parkway East, Vestal, N.Y. 13850.John Hachtel, associate vice president of communications and marketing; Anita Knopp Doll, director of communications; Marty Doorey, editor; Katie Ellis, Janice Endrissen, Gail Glover, Susan E. Barker, Karen Fennie, John Hartrick, Ingrid Husisian, Sandra Paniccia, Susann Thiel, contributing writers; Evangelos Dousmanis, photography; Libby Graves, webmaster. Phone 607-777-6366. COMMENTS: Email Inside. BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY

Program aims to reset student drinking norms
Gerry Johansen, coordinator of the University’s Alcohol and Other Drug Program, worked with students to craft the message for the Just the Facts posters in the foreground that have recently been placed around campus. (Photography by Evangelos Dousmanis).
Campus takes multiple paths to deal with alcohol issues

BY MARTY DOOREY

One of the continuing challenges on college campuses occurs when students and alcohol mix. While alcohol is legal for students over 21, most undergraduates are underage, raising legal concerns along with the health and social issues.

David Anderson, who as dean of students oversees several departments that carry out campus initiatives that respond to alcohol issues, said the University has taken a broad environmental management approach to the problem.

The campus strategy encompasses seven components that range from the Off-Campus College’s Campus-Community Coalition to work with community agencies to the special programming of Late Nite Binghamton designed to keep students on campus. The strategy was designed by Gerard E. Johansen who heads the University’s Alcohol and Other Drug Program and serves as coordinator and liaison for several efforts on campus.

For Anderson, one of the most promising efforts is the recently undertaken social norms marketing campaign designed to spread the word that Binghamton students don’t drink as much as people might think.

Anderson notes the posters and message have sparked a lot of reaction on campus from students, faculty and staff. “It’s important to see that message and react to it,” said Anderson, noting that no matter what one’s opinion on the campaign or the statistics, it stimulates thinking about alcohol and its role on campus.

From Anderson’s perspective, the real issues with the social norms or other prevention campaign, is the societal denial that alcohol — which is a legal and socially acceptable drug — causes more problems than people like to admit.

“Let’s admit we have a problem and do something about it,” he said.

While the campaign emphasizes one aspect of alcohol and other drug prevention efforts, the work of the Campus-Community Coalition represents a more activist prevention strategy.

David R. Husch, assistant director of Off-Campus College, heads the coalition which meets monthly to discuss a wide range of issues from housing to student drinking. The coalition has representatives from the Binghamton Mayor’s office, Binghamton Police, landlords, tavern owners, Neighborhood Watch groups, students, fraternity members, the State Liquor Authority and several campus offices.

Working with the State Liquor Authority and law enforcement, the coalition has helped plan sting operations that target taverns selling alcohol to minors. The coalition has also worked with police to break up off-campus house and fraternity-sorority parties where alcohol was being sold and served to minors.

Still in the planning stages are efforts to have State Liquor Authority personnel work with taverns to check for false IDs so that students who present the IDs can be arrested on the spot, rather than making taverns totally responsible for spotting false IDs.

Activities such as Late Nite Binghamton, which provides live music, movies and sporting events Thursday through Sunday nights, also help by giving students an alternative to an alcohol-focused event. So far the program has drawn almost 9,000 students to its events in the last six weeks.

“It’s all been helpful,” Husch said.

BY JOHN DOWLING

College and drinking are two words that have become inextricably linked. Scenes of college students drinking alcohol populate the movies, television shows and advertisements. Binghamton University looks to change this notion.

While many students may believe that just about everyone drinks on a regular basis, a survey of student drinking patterns last year found this belief is wrong. Now a campus-wide advertising campaign, known as Just the Facts, has been created with the idea of re-setting campus expectations about alcohol.

In recent weeks posters have sprung up around campus with the message, “65 percent of Binghamton students have 0-4 drinks when they party.” These results were collected from a spring 2001 random survey of Binghamton students.

The survey’s findings are not universally accepted on campus. “If you go to any of the bars downtown where specials run four and five nights a week, it’s hard to imagine people having fewer than four drinks,” said senior Chris Reide.

Senior Alexandra Owakil agreed, saying, “The bars are always packed. On a Friday night, it’s hard to spot a sober person having fun.”

David L. Anderson, dean of students, has seen the numbers from the Binghamton survey and from similar surveys. “The bottom line is that most students drink a whole lot less than we think they do,” he said.

Two national surveys, the National College Health Assessment, and the Core Alcohol and Drug Survey, report similar findings to Binghamton’s. The Core survey reported that 63 percent of respondents had four or fewer drinks per week, and the NCHA survey reported that 61 percent of respondents had four or fewer drinks the last time they partied or socialized.

The Just the Facts campaign is sponsored by the Golden Key International Honor Society and is modeled on a theory known as social norms marketing, which says that if the social norm for drinking is set accurately, drinking levels will decrease to approach the norm. The theory was developed at Northern Illinois University in 1989. Research found that where it is tried, high-risk drinking has been reduced by 20 percent.

Gerry Johansen, coordinator of the Alcohol and Other Drugs Program, says students generally misperceive other students’ choices about drinking. “People coming out of high school don’t have established drinking patterns,” said Johansen. He noted new freshmen may see their residence hall neighbors going out to the bars to drink, and “they may start to think that everyone drinks. But heavy drinkers are actually the minority. Just the Facts puts out the correct information and lets the students make the choice.”

Johansen said students are more inclined to remember the behavior of someone who is drunk rather than someone who is behaving responsibly. While most students don’t drink to excess, high-risk drinking does occur on campus and in the community. Johansen notes that high-risk drinking is directly related to academic failure, physical violence and unintentional injury. The persistence of these problems on campus and the failure of traditional education-prevention strategies and scare tactics have led Johansen and others on campus to explore the social norms approach.

“The campaign started out as a photocopy on the doors,” Johansen said. “This year, the campaign expanded into ads now seen around campus and in Pipe Dream. We hope to have two or three different versions of the ad by the end of this semester.”

“It’s important to have a clear message that gets across to the student population and will stick in their minds," he said. "This message will remain the same until there is a significant change in the survey results.”

Students are conducting a survey to find out whether the ad campaign is working. So far, Johansen said, the survey results show that the number of drinkers who drink more than four drinks when they party remains steady. It also shows that the number of students who abstain from drinking has increased.

“I can be categorized in the 65 percent but it’s hard to believe the numbers,” said senior Marisa Cohen. “If that’s actually a correct figure, it’s rather encouraging to know I’m part of the majority.”

“I like being part of the 65 percent,” said senior Sharif Fakhr. “It’s gives me an opportunity to see how the other 35 percent act when they’re drunk. It provides me some good entertainment.”

Johansen doesn’t expect instant results. “A whole new population comes in every four years. Somewhere down the line, the ads will show responsible behavior is the norm, not excessive drinking,” he said.
BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY PO Box 6000 Binghamton, NY 13902-6000