Mandatory alcohol course hits Fargo-Moorhead area
Alcohol.
Incoming college freshman have preconceived notions about the substance, but college professors want students to be more knowledgeable on the topic, even if it means making an alcohol course mandatory.
MSUM has currently made a drug and alcohol course a graduation requirement starting with the freshman class of 2006.
The course, Alcohol and College Life, is currently being taught at four other campuses across Minnesota, but it is offered as an elective.
Professor James Rothenberger, University of Minnesota, has been teaching alcohol and drug courses to more than 100,000 students since 1972.
Tayne DeNeui, a graduate student of the University of Minnesota, collaborated with Rothenberger at the end of 2000 to help write the course from a student’s perspective.
DeNeui is now the teaching assistant coordinator for the course.
“ Alcohol issues affect all students whether or not they choose to drink,” DeNeui said. “We want to give freshmen students the keys to successfully living in an alcohol-saturated environment.”
When Rothenberger and DeNeui first collaborated at the University of Minnesota, they developed three goals for the class. They sought to provide reinforcement for freshmen students who did not drink, as well as reinforcing safety for those who did consume alcohol. They also wanted to counteract any myths about alcohol consumption.
Through research and studies, they recognized that there were significant gaps in the knowledge base of their student population with regards to alcohol.
“ For example,” DeNeui said. “Our IRB-approved focus groups indicated that a sizable portion of freshmen believed it was good to ‘pass out’ when drinking because the body would no longer absorb alcohol, when just the opposite is true.”
Alcohol and College Life has been taught to more than 2,500 students since 2002 at the University of Minnesota, where it is an elective.
“ Over the years students have commented numerous times that they wished this course was mandatory,” DeNeui said. “Because they believe that all students, whether they drink or not, should be taught this information.”
NDSU does not have a mandatory drug and alcohol course, but it does, however, incorporate the important topic into the mandatory University Studies 189 course. Two components dealing with high-risk alcohol consumption that are incorporated into the courses are a lecture by Nona Wood, associate director for student rights and responsibilities, and a tool called “e-chug.”
Laura Oster-Aaland, director of orientation and student success, explained “e-chug” as a tool that provides students with information about their drinking in comparison to other students.
“ It provides students with information about their personal risk factors related to alcohol, such as family history of abuse,” Oster-Aaland said. “It provides them feedback about the cost of their alcohol use, the calories consumed and the risks in terms of health and safety.”
E-chug is available, along with other alcohol information, on a new Web site, www.ndsu.edu/alcoholinfo.
Oster-Aaland explained that while it is true that college students have always consumed alcohol, the trend over the past 10-20 years shows that more students are choosing to abstain from alcohol.
“At the same time, more students are engaging in high risk drinking.” Oster-Aaland said. “So, the number of students who are drinking in moderate, low risk ways is declining.”
The problem is that most students, even those who abstain, think that their peers drink more than they actually do, so those abstainers and moderate drinkers are not supported in the collegiate environment. This causes them to increase their drinking in order to fit in with a “false norm.”
Alcohol is the number one public health problem among traditional-aged college students, DeNeui said.
“ Nothing else contributes to so much morbidity and mortality, from broken bones to deaths by car,” DeNeui said.
Alcohol has long been an issue on college campuses.
“The overuse and abuse of alcohol is one of the main reasons students do not come back their sophomore year,” DeNeui said.