Involving Students in Collegiate AOD Programming

Helping or advising specific campus groups or individuals as they develop community education programs or requests for funding for AOD prevention activities can be daunting. For example, most collegiate “alcohol education” activities have traditionally included a “risk-based” approach, one that essentially attempts to educate individuals about the “bad things that can happen” when using. Another “traditional approach” is the didactic “alcohol/other drug specific” theme, that is, the focus is on delivering information about the substance rather than engaging the audience in a discussion about the individual or group that may be considering its use. What if the emphasis when advising event planners was to: (1) avoid either of these foci, or (2) suggest skill-based and/or strength-based approaches to programming…if not both?

As regards avoiding the “AOD risk-based” program, I wonder how students would respond to an event designed to: (1) engage attendees in exploring the “benefits/pay-offs” of moderation rather than the risk associated with abuse—to move towards the light rather than away from the darkness—and/or (2) look at AOD-related topics, but with the emphasis on the student as a “student” rather than a consumer. For example, looking at how alcohol is marketed and considering the ethical implications of an ad campaign that is only concerned with increasing sales and ignores the social implications of those increased sales, especially if targeting “underage” consumers; or one that looks at interesting historical facts related to AOD and presents interesting trivia…like how the term “proof” came to be related to alcohol or that the Pentagon is built on the geographic site of one of the largest 18th century hemp plantations in the Western Hemisphere or that “canvas” comes from the Dutch word for  Cannabis, etc. (see Loosening theGrip by Kinney for this type of historical data or explore www.Mentalfloss.com. One could do something on FAE—Fetal Alcohol Effect—for a program attended by bio, nursing, or pre-med majors or consider the role of psychoactive substances in religious ritual for Religion or Sociology majors. For Psych majors, design programs that look at the nexus of AOD use and social psych, exploring phenomena such as “Alcohol Myopia,” “state dependent learning,” etc. Notice how such programs are more likely to engage students as students than traditional programs that try and engage them strictly as “consumers”; yet insight is insight, whether it is gleaned by a “student” or “consumer” and is just as likely—and perhaps, more so—to affect the future thinking of “students” about consumption.

As regards avoiding the “AOD specific focus,” considering decision making skills (see http://www.samhsa.gov/consumersurvivor/sdm/Workbooks/SDM_Workbooks/Helper%20Workbook_508.pdf) or exploring the prevalence of “harm reduction” in contemporary culture—fire extinguishers, seatbelts and airbags, handrail on stairs, fire retardant infant clothing, etc. From this discussion, the presenter(s) can then invite the audience to identify existing HR strategies in their specific collegiate environment and from there, can be invited to hypothesize how HR can be more directly inserted into their every days lives, including socializing. If a budget exists for this event, perhaps the presenting group could purchase “give-aways” to be awarded to those in the audience that proffer suggestions, with the group deciding which individual idea is best—2^nd place…3^rd place?—and then award a “grand prize,” a college hoodie or something donated by the bookstore or “whatever” with T-shirts or whatever for 2^nd and 3^rd places.

Contemporary collegians are both well informed and sophisticated. They are not only disinterested in the traditional “AOD Talk,” they find such to be off-putting if not condescending. Yet when approached as the “students” they are, they will respond differently because we condition them to respond differently.

Remember Mark Twain’s famous quote about perspective when approaching others:  When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.  

What do you think?

Dr. Robert