Students Report Being Helped by Alcohol Abuse Education Program
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Oct. 23, 2006
Joe Wills
530-898-4143
Students Report Being Helped by Alcohol Abuse Education Program
First-year results from California State University, Chico's alcohol abuse education program for freshmen found that a high percentage of students said they were helped by the program.
Based on surveys students fill out at the completion of the Web-based AlcoholEdu for College program, 70 percent of CSU, Chico freshmen last year said they knew more than they had previously about alcohol's physiological effects, and 74 percent said they felt more prepared to make decisions about drinking.
After completing the program, 69 percent of freshmen said they would recommend the course and 73 percent found the course helpful.
CSU, Chico is in the second year of a three-year contract with Outside the Classroom, a Boston-based company that produces AlcoholEdu for College. The University is one of more than 450 campuses that uses the program to educate students and combat alcohol and drug abuse.
Among campuses that make completing AlcoholEdu required for entering freshmen, CSU, Chico had one of the highest compliance rates in the United States. Shauna Quinn, director of the Campus Alcohol and Drug Education Center (CADEC), said 95 percent of CSU, Chico freshmen required to take the program did complete it.
"Chico has set up a model implementation of AlcoholEdu, which has helped them garner excellent results with their students in the past," said Brandon Busteed, founder and CEO of Outside The Classroom. "We are confident that those practices will help ensure their success both this year and in the future."
AlcoholEdu uses research to educate students about alcohol and its effects. The course is roughly 2½-hours. Students are surveyed before and after the material is presented in the online session, and then 30 days afterwards in a mandatory follow-up session. The surveys check on how students' perceptions and attitudes regarding alcohol may have changed.
Among freshmen who characterized themselves as drinkers, the percentage of students who saw no need to change their drinking behavior dropped from 50 percent to 41 percent by the end of the program. The percentage of those thinking of changing their drinking behavior went up from 19 percent to 30 percent, and the percentage of those ready to change drinking behavior went up from 12 percent to 15 percent.
When students filled out the final survey 30 days after starting AlcoholEdu, they reported changes from when they started the program regarding care-taking behaviors toward friends who drink. The percentage of freshmen who said they would talk to a friend who had been drinking too much increased from 27 percent to 42 percent, and the percentage who worried about friends who had been drinking increased from 46 percent to 60 percent.
"Chico State has long been a leader in alcohol abuse education, and AlcoholEdu has become one valuable aspect of that effort," said Drew Calandrella, vice president for student affairs. "Tremendous cooperation among students, faculty and staff have made this program work, with the result that our freshmen are learning about alcohol and its effect on their lives."
Current CSU, Chico freshmen have until Nov. 17 to complete the follow-up AlcoholEdu survey, Quinn said. Those who don't finish the program will not be able to begin spring classes until they do, she said. Last fall, only 32 freshmen failed to complete AlcoholEdu, Quinn said, though eight of them ultimately completed the program and re-enrolled in the spring.
###