SU wins national honor for alcohol abuse prevention

SU wins national honor for alcohol abuse preventionSeptember 18, 2006Matthew R. Snydermrsnyder@syr.edu

On Sept. 19, Syracuse University will be one of three universities honored at a Washington, D.C., ceremony for excellence in developing and implementing programs to effectively prevent alcohol abuse and underage drinking. SU will join the University of Missouri-Columbia and the SUNY College at Oneonta as winners of the 2006 National Collegiate Alcohol Awareness Week (NCAAAW) Awards, a national competition in which colleges and universities are judged for their significant use of an evidence-based approach in prevention efforts, as well as comprehensive year-round alcohol education programming, collaboration and support for NCAAW.

Representing SU will be the Division of Student Affairs’ Jeanne S. Steffes, associate vice president for student affairs, and Susan A. Scholl, associate director of the Office of Prevention Services. They will receive a plaque and a grant for $5,000 from Edward Hammond, who is president of Fort Hays State University, chair of the Inter-Association Task Force on Alcohol and Other Substance Abuse Issues (IATF) and board chair of The BACCHUS Network. The awards are presented in conjunction with National Collegiate Alcohol Awareness Week (NCAAW). Coors Brewing Co. sponsors the awards with IATF.

After receiving the award, Steffes and Scholl will meet with members of Congress to discuss how SU’s programming addresses the problem of alcohol abuse by college students.

“I am proud of Division of Student Affairs staff for their best-in-the-field work, as recognized by NCAAW and earlier this year with Outside the Classroom’s first-ever Prevention Excellence Award,” says Barry L. Wells, senior vice president and dean of student affairs. “But I am most proud of our students, who, after participating in programs such as AlcoholEdu and Virtual Intoxication Golf Cart Navigation, are demonstrating increased awareness of the threats posed by alcohol abuse.”

SU’s approach to alcohol and other drug abuse prevention is guided by the University’s Twelve-Point Plan for Reducing Alcohol and Other Drug Use, a comprehensive environmental management strategy developed by Wells in 1999. It draws on best practices of alcohol and other drug prevention, education and intervention programming, including research, evaluation and curricular components. As part of the ongoing effort to build on SU’s success in this area, the Division of Student Affairs recently created the Office of Prevention Services, which now houses the Substance Abuse Prevention and Health Enhancement (S.A.P.H.E.) Program and the University Rape: Advocacy, Prevention and Education (R.A.P.E.) Center.

“I am very pleased to recognize these three institutions for their outstanding programming that is helping solve the problems of underage drinking and over-consumption,” says Hammond. “Their sustained efforts are making a difference.”