Student Affairs Over the Last

Student Affairs

Over the last several years, a variety of colleges and universities have been forming cross campus coalitions and partnerships. Part of the reason for this, is because they are using these alliances between educators and students, as a way to be able to address a host of different issues. One area where this has been facing increasing amounts of emphasis is: alcohol and substance abuse. According to estimates, about ten percent of young American adults in the age group of 18 to 24 years old were classified as heavy drinkers. While, nearly 20% of respondents were binge drinkers. This is problematic, because it means that these issues are beginning to become a public safety problem on many college campuses. Evidence of this can be seen with recent data on alcohol abuse among U.S. college students in the 18 to 24-year-old age demographic. As, nearly 1,700 student die every year due to: alcohol-related accidents. While, 500,000 students were accidentally injured: after consuming alcohol and about 70,000 were the victims of alcohol-related sexual assaults. ("Effective Strategies to Reduce High Risk Drinking," 2006) This is significant, because it is illustrating how these kinds of problems are becoming more hazardous. As a result, colleges and universities have been implementing various programs to encourage student development. To fully understand the overall scope of this issue requires: examining how the creation of campus wide coalitions can have impact on a host of students, the formation of learning / living environments, the way these projects can work in conjunction with the mission of the college and how these problems are addressing a number of other issues. Once this takes place, it will provide the greatest insights as to how to design a coalition that will effectively tackle drug and alcohol abuse on college campuses.

The creation of campus wide coalitions which address issues of alcohol abuse and underage drinking among students.

Around the United States, a number of different colleges and universities have been creating various partnerships between the students and the faculty. The basic idea, behind this strategy is to effectively tackle this problem by: providing students with alterative choices and different reasons why they do not want to consume alcohol or drugs. This kind of approach has been proven to be successful, as it can address the various conflicts and issues that many students will face. Over the course of time, this will help them to make adjustments to: the university environment and the experiences that it can provide. (Kumpher, 1993, pp. 359 -- 374)

The formation of partnerships with faculty in support of what we are now coming to call "learning - living environments."

Campus-wide coalitions are focused on discouraging alcohol use among students. The basic strategy is to provide effective means of enforcing these policies and encouraging everyone to make healthier choices. A model program has been implemented at the Georgia Institute of Technology (GIT). They started the project (called GT SMART) with the intention of focusing on: creating campus-communities and cross-campus coalitions. These are designed to completely transform the environment on the campus by: discouraging alcohol consumption among the students.

Under the project, a task force was created to monitor and identify all the events that were encouraging alcohol use among the students. This included: improving communication between members of the administrative / teaching staff and the students of the university (through the implementation of a task force). The basic strategy was to discourage alcohol usage through: working law enforcement and having a number of events to provide students with alternative choices. One of the most notable effects that this group had on the campus was: to ban alcohol advertising in the student newspaper, having a series of documentaries shown at orientation highlighting the dangers of alcohol consumption and they also handed out series of pamphlets to all students. This is significant, because this is showing how this program would help to redefine the atmosphere on the college campus by: creating a safe environment for everyone to live and learn. ("Effective Strategies to Reduce High Risk Drinking," 2006) In addition to the above-mentioned steps taken by the university, the campus-wide coalitions have resulted in creation of learning-living environments. This is when the university arranges for: providing educational, healthcare, and counseling services to all the students. The aim is to support wellness practices for the long-term health of everyone.

The establishment of conversations with teaching faculty that has resulted in model community "service learning" projects consistent with the mission of the college or university.

The drug and alcohol program supports coordination among: the students, university administration, and faculty members in different areas. As students are assisted by the faculty members to deal with different learning issues they could face. Where, they are encouraged to discuss their problems with the teaching staff or counselors, in order to receive help on: strategies and skills required to achieve success in the real world. This is significant, because we are creating different student learning projects that are a collaborative effort between: staff members and the students. This is in line with the mission of the college by ensuring that the highest quality education is provided to everyone. The best way to achieve this objective is to creating various learning projects that are consistent with these goals. (DeJong, 2006)

Student development alliances and programmatic development with teaching faculty that address problems related to poor class attendance, personal or behavioral problems which impair academic performance, and the tendency to view "the classroom as the classroom" and everything outside of class as "everything else."

These kinds of alliances can address a number of problems that student alcohol consumption and substance abuse can have on the performance of the individual. A few of the most notable include: poor attendance, a lack of interest in the material being presented and various behavioral challenges. The reason why, is because these kinds of partnerships are addressing various aspects as to why students will become involved with consuming these substances. This is helping to give many people increased amounts of choices and activities that will provide them with safe alternatives. This will have a positive impact upon: their attendance, interest in the material and behavior. Once this occurs, it means that graduates are more prepared for the real world, because they were taught how to deal with two of the toughest challenges facing many people (drug and alcohol abuse). In this aspect, one could argue that this is taking an approach about: how the activities outside of the classroom can have a direct impact on how successful students will be. (Dolores, 2010)