Prevention is the best medicine, says an old adage. The administration and staff at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga can agree with this idea that is the basis for their implementation of the AlcoholEdu program, required for all incoming freshman this year.
Tricia Henderson is the coordinator of mental health education at UTC’s Counseling and Career Planning Center and oversees AlcoholEdu. She coordinates alcohol, drug and mental health education for the campus, a process that involves a lot of prevention and education methods to let students know about on-campus efforts, she says. AlcoholEdu is a two-part alcohol course that includes information about sexual assault, how to get to resources on campus, campus policies related to alcohol and drug use, and informing students on how they can make responsible decisions, Henderson says. Through this course, students know what they are drinking, how it is impacting their body, and over the long-term, how it can impact their success as a student, she says.
By implementing this program, UTC joins hundreds of other institutions nationwide requiring every member of their freshmen class to complete AlcoholEdu. According to the administration, AlcoholEdu is an important element of UTC’s education efforts intended to encourage student success and reduce the number of students who experience negative consequences as a result of alcohol and drug use. Through this online course, students learn how their decisions involving alcohol can impact their college success, safety, and their overall health.
AlcoholEdu offers a confidential, personalized experience for each student. The online course includes alcohol-related content featuring videos, blogs, IM chats and comics; helpful tools, like a Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) calculator; safe partying strategies and tips for helping a friend; and a SexualAssaultEdu Module. Research shows that alcohol use negatively impacts students’ academic success, increases risk for injury, and increases safety risks. The course addresses unrealistic expectations about the effects of alcohol, links choices about drinking to academic and personal success, helps students practice safer decision-making, informs students about campus policies and campus resources and engages students to create a healthier campus community.
The online format of the course allows institutions to reach a large number of students, and upperclassmen are encouraged to complete the course, too, Henderson says. The resources that students learn about through the course include assistance from the university police, the counseling center, Henderson’s services, and the dean of students office. Henderson says that even talking to a faculty member, asking them questions, and letting them know what is going on can help students. The program also encourages students to get involved in organizations within and outside of campus if they are feeling isolated.
“I think that as freshmen are moving away from parents, they are being confronted with a lot of different issues, and it’s a stressful time while they adjust,” Henderson says. “I think they come to campus with misperceptions related to alcohol and drug use, and it’s easy to get lured into making bad decisions.” She says the University and AlcoholEdu tries to inform students, educate them and let them know that most students of the campus are making good decisions related to alcohol and are responsible drinkers.
“It is important to know, too, though, that if they do run across someone, or they themselves have drank too much, to know what resources are there,” Henderson says.
The first part of AlcoholEdu was delivered before students got to campus, because the program administrators wanted to make sure students had all the information before classes even started, Henderson says. The program collects confidential data from the online modules before the students begin the program and after to see how things have changed and what students’ thoughts are before they got to campus and after. It is in this way that the university can take the information and dedicate its prevention and education resources to the campus specific needs, says Henderson.
The university has signed a contract with “Outside the Classroom” for four-years for the AlcoholEdu program, and the program has already been paid for with money from student fees. “It’s just our way of increasing our prevention efforts and using our first online module to do that,” Henderson says. “It came out of research and finding the most effective evidence-based tools out there, and this was one of them.”
Henderson says she and others at the Counseling and Career Planning Center are available for students, and are happy to work with any student group or community programs in collaboration. “We just want to get the word out there and let students know they are supported, they have resources and we want to help facilitate the best experience for their time here as students,” she says.