Susan Resneck Pierce

University of Puget Sound

Q & A

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism’s (NIAAA) Task Force on College Drinking

1. How did you become involved in the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism’s (NIAAA) Task Force on College Drinking?

I received a phone call from somebody who was involved in the project, inviting me to join. At the time, my first impulse was to “just say no” because I was a little uneasy about associating Puget Sound with a significant problem. Then I immediately realized that this is a national problem and decided that I really had a responsibility to try to do everything I could to address it. So I did say “yes” and I’m very glad that I did. I have learned an enormous amount and have been able to put into place programs at Puget Sound that I hope will be effective.

2. How has your experience working with the task force changed your thinking about high-risk drinking by college students?

First of all, I learned a lot of information. As many people were, I was stunned at the extent of the problem – that 1,400 college aged students die every year from alcohol-related causes, and the total number of assaults and injuries are over a million. Though I had always known that drinking to excess was antithetical to successful academic performance, I was stunned to learn that 1 out of 4 students had academic difficulty because of alcohol. The other significant thing that I learned was the notion that, for institutions to address this problem, they really need presidential leadership. I also learned the importance of thinking about this as an environmental problem, and so I began a campus-community task force to reduce high-risk drinking. Trying to address the problem became one of my priorities over the last three years, and I don’t know if that would have happened if I hadn’t been on the Task Force. One of the things that we talked about on the Task Force was how to engage other presidents to take the problem as seriously as those of us on the Task Force did.

3. The NIAAA report lists alcohol abuse prevention programs that work, programs that show promise, and programs that don't work. Were you surprised by any of the research findings? What did you learn?

The first thing I learned is that, for years and years, campuses with all good intentions had mounted programs without assessing them and that many institutions were putting a great many resources – human and financial – into programs that demonstrably were not effective. I was surprised to learn that educational efforts alone are not successful, but that they really need to be combined with other kinds of initiatives. Those of us on campuses are such firm believers in education that we think that, if we give people the information, that will be enough, but the fact it that it doesn’t change behavior. It suddenly occurred to me that the group of people in society who probably know the most about the effects of alcoholism are alcoholics. The difference between what you know and your behavior sometimes is pretty great.

4. Has your participation in the task force helped to shape the alcohol and other drug prevention efforts that are being conducted on your campus? How?

Yes, significantly. First of all, we now have a full time Ph.D. psychologist whose area of expertise is drug and alcohol prevention and intervention. She has made a significant difference. She has put together a task force that includes many students, and they have done a number of quite effective things. Probably the most significant is that they’ve taken on the question of alcohol poisoning. After all, one of our great goals is to make sure our students are safe. They have created very attention-grabbing posters that they’ve put up all over campus, including in every bathroom stall, that identify the signs of alcohol poisoning and what to do about it. I think that’s educated the campus, and I suspect it’s prevented some real harm in some individual cases where students have gotten help.

We’ve also been very deliberate about creating events that do not rely on alcohol that we think will be very attractive to students. We provide free food and things of that sort. We have worked to educate students about how to have successful and safe parties. Certainly, we’ve brought speakers to campus and have held various workshops. We’ve instituted parental notification in cases where students are chronic violators of our policy or if they need any kind of medical help at all; we give the student the opportunity first to call his or her parents before we contact them. This has been a pretty effective tool for us.

We’ve hired off-duty police officers to work in the neighborhood on selective weekends. We’re a residential campus, but a certain percentage of our students live in the neighborhoods within a mile of campus. Sometimes, off-campus parties were getting out of hand, and we were concerned about the safety of our students, and certainly the neighbors were unhappy about noise and other problems. They were calling 911, but the police tended to put this complaint at the bottom of the list. By hiring off-duty police officers, we were ensured that they would respond immediately if they were in the neighborhood. Some of our students are unhappy about it, but other students have indicated that it’s good for them to know that, if they have a problem, they’ll get an instant response from the officers if they are in the neighborhood.

The campus-community task force includes representatives from all of the area colleges and universities, the public schools, the health and police departments, Safe Streets, Mothers Against Drunk Driving – it’s a pretty broad coalition of people. I think they’ve really worked hard to educate one another and to work together. Sometimes just having the relationships make a big difference. We’ve worked a lot on designated driver programs and, back on campus, a social norms campaign.

5. Based on the NIAAA recommendations, what would you advise to presidents who are currently confronting this issue on their campuses?

First, become fully informed. And, second, ensure that they have good staff members who have expertise in this area, and provide them with support. I think that, often, Student Affairs staff are doing very good work, but are working in isolation. We did the first NIAAA Regional Conference on Campus Drinking here and that brought lots of people from the Pacific Northwest. One of the conversations that I had with many people – Deans of Students, Counseling staff, Student Affairs staff – was their difficulty in engaging the attention of their president. Presidential attention lends a certain seriousness to the effort. Presidents determine the priorities. Presidents can direct resources. So, I think that presidents need to understand that this is an effort designed to ensure their students are safe and have the best chance of learning and being well-educated. None of us wants to receive one of those “middle of the night” phone calls. I also think it’s important for presidents to understand the significance of the second-hand effects of alcohol abuse. The vast majority of our students either do not drink or drink moderately, but their lives are disrupted by people who do.

6. Looking back on your years of alcohol and other drug prevention at UPS, what do you feel most proud of? What work would you like to see continued?

I feel most proud that there’s been a very strong collaborative effort among students, faculty, and staff from a variety of areas, so that it’s not viewed as something that belongs to just one person. I think that’s an ongoing challenge, and I suspect that my involvement – the fact that I’ve spoken about this with the faculty, staff, parents, and alumni, written about it, and have been pretty public about it – has meant that the campus takes it pretty seriously. And, frankly, the degree to which we’ve had students involved in planning our programs and our initiatives has been very effective. In fact, Puget Sound students served on the NIAAA Task Force as well. I think having students on that Task Force has been important.

All the statistics show that, while there is a slightly greater number of students who aren’t drinking at all, those who are drinking excessively, are drinking really excessively. I’d like to see it continue to be a priority.

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