Mardi Gras celebrations are notorious for centering around excessive drinking and partying. (Associated Press)
In April 2011, the National College Health Improvement Program (NCHIP) launched the Learning Collaborative on High-Risk Drinking.
The innovative initiative combines comprehensive evaluations and measurement methods to pinpoint and implement effective ways to combat the problems of excessive drinking.
More than 30 colleges and universities have joined with NCHIP’s efforts based at The Dartmouth Institute of Health Policy and Clinical Practice (TDI), and SMU is one of those universities.
For SMU, joining the NCHIP was a result of the 2007-08 President’s Task Force on Substance Abuse Prevention.
The Task Force has now changed to The President’s Commission on Substance Abuse Prevention, after initial findings and reports.
The Commission is composed of students, faculty and staff.
Meetings are held regularly during the academic year to monitor and assess substance abuse prevention strategies.
“I see our membership in the Learning Collaborative on High-Risk Drinking as an important part of the work of the President’s Commission,” Lori White, vice president for student affairs at SMU, said.
“I look forward to joining forces with our peers to find ideas and answers about binge drinking.”
NCHIP reports that four out of 10 students are affected by binge drinking.
Binge drinking is defined as four or more drinks for women and five or more drinks for men over a period of two hours.
It can also be any form of drinking that leads to impairment.
How does NCHIP work?
Collaborative teams spend 18 months working with TDI researchers to come up with new health solutions and methods. The teams to discover which programs work best depending on the specific campus of the university.
Notable schools involved in the initiative include Yale, Cornell, Wellesley, Stanford, Princeton, Duke, The University of Vermont, The University of Minnesota, and The University of New Hampshire.
SMU is currently the only university in Texas participating.
SMU’s Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention Staff at Memorial Health Center consists of John Sanger, director; Jan McCutchin, coordinator; and Galen Laprocido; health educator.
The team is also comprised of Assistant Provost for Strategic Initiatives and Student Retention Anthony Tillman and Vice President for Student Affairs Lori White.
The student member is Nick Jehlik, a junior marketing major at SMU’s Cox School of Business.
“This learning collaborative shares information, concepts and measurement techniques that can help decrease high-risk drinking on campus. Ultimately, this effort can help save lives,” Jehlik said. “Given my proximity to the effects of high-risk drinking I believe I can represent the SMU student body in helping to make our campus safer.”
