1996-98 Drug and Violence Prevention in Higher Education Project

"Reducing Misperceptions and Raising Curricular Interest About Drinking and Other Drug Use and Violence on Campus"

PROJECT DIRECTOR:

H. Wesley Perkins ,Ph.D., Professor of Sociology
Dept. of Anthropology/Sociology
 Hobart & William Smith Colleges
 Geneva, New York 14456
Phone: (315) 781-3437, Fax: (315) 781-3718
E-mail: perkins@hws.edu

 PROJECT CO-DIRECTOR:

David W. Craig, Ph.D.,Professor of Chemistry
Dept. of Chemistry
 Hobart & William Smith Colleges
 Geneva, New York 14456
Phone: (315) 781-3611, Fax: (315) 781-3587
E-mail: craig@hws.edu

Project Description:

The program at this selective liberal arts college integrates a comprehensive initiative to reduce harmful misperceptions about student alcohol and other drug norms on this undergraduate residential campus with the development of strategies for teaching about AOD use and violence in the academic curriculum. Activities include a mass communications campaign based on local survey data to reduce myths, the expansion of an interdisciplinary course on alcohol abuse beyond the classroom, and a faculty training initiative for curriculum infusion across academic programs. The objective is to produce a new and more integrated academic and social climate, where students have a more realistic awareness of peer disapproval of AOD use and abuse and where a more responsible level of conversation about drugs exists. As perceptions of norms become more realistic and discussion of drugs is increasingly integrated in the curriculum, a significant reduction in student AOD use and associated violence is expected.

Curriculum Infusion

Reducing Misperceptions Campaigns

Related Initiatives and Resources of the Hobart and William Smith Colleges

page last modified: 10/11/2012