Freshmen: you all must complete an online alcohol prevention program

[USFan]

Will this work?

Colleges requiring alcohol program

BY ADAM EMERSON

THE TAMPA TRIBUNE

TAMPA -- Freshmen at the University of South Florida and the University of Tampa must complete an online alcohol prevention program as soon as they arrive on their campuses this fall.

The two universities said last week that they are joining about 200 colleges nationwide requiring first-year students to take the course, which quizzes students on their drinking behavior and checks what test administrators call a student's "readiness to change."

Classes start Monday at both schools, and freshmen already have spent hours hunched over computers responding to questions in the first of two portions of the program, which is called AlcoholEdu for College. They can expect to spend about four hours total.

"Before they get into their freshman year is a crucial time to reach them," said Deidre Orriola of USF's student health services.

The program has been in schools for seven years, and was used initially for students who violated college alcohol policies, said Erika Tower, a spokeswoman for Boston-based Outside the Classroom Inc., which administers AlcoholEdu.

The company, however, had developed the program for use with all incoming freshmen. "It took a little while to get colleges to think in a different way about alcohol prevention," Tower said.

Besides the 200 colleges nationwide that require all freshmen to complete the program, another 300 use it in limited ways, such as mandating it among sorority and fraternity members or among student-athletes. The University of Central Florida in Orlando and the University of Miami use the program, too.

Administrators at USF and UT will keep track of the students who do not complete the course, but they will not screen individual responses. The schools, however, can review aggregated data about students' drinking behavior.

The program tests students about the effects of alcohol, but also asks them about the number of drinks they have consumed for the previous two weeks. Officials at Outside the Classroom say that the percentage of heavy drinkers who did not see a need to change their behavior dropped by 30 percent at the end of the course.

"The majority of our students are making relatively healthy choices," said Gina Firth, UT's associate dean of students. "It's the smaller population, about 25 percent to 35 percent of students, who are high-risk drinking."

Freshmen who began arriving at UT this week said the program might help the fraction of students who know little about the effects of heavy drinking.

But it would do little to accomplish what the university claims.

"If you tell a student, 'Don't drink,' they're going to want to do it anyway," said Estela Aragon, 18, a freshman studying music education. "This is not going to stop them."

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20070826/NEWS/708260525/1060/NEWS0110

[Mag Pie]

Honestly...what's so cool about drinking?  I spent my years at USF having lots of fun and I didn't see the need to drink.  I graduated this past summer and even now I don't drink like that...if I go out with friends I might have a few, but it's something that doesn't need to be done every few days or even every weekend.  The whole drink to get drunk thing is soooo stupid.  I might be the only 22 yr old that thinks like this...