A MODEL COURSE FOR ALCOHOL ABUSE PREVENTION IN HIGHER EDUCATION

The Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention National Symposium on
"Faculty Leadership in Preventing Alcohol and Other Drug Problems in Higher Education"
University of Massachusetts, Boston

July 17-19, 1997

This presentation describes the philosophical approach and case study experience of faculty at Hobart and William Smith Colleges who have developed a curriculum project that educates students about alcohol abuse and simultaneously serves as a prevention mechanism for the campus community. A major component of the project is the introduction of an experimental course on "Alcohol Use and Abuse: Causes and Consequences" two years ago and its recent expansion to include a wide variety of innovative prevention components, each of which are a significant advance beyond the traditional drug education course found in higher education. The components to be described in the presentation include:

1. interdisciplinary approach that incorporates sociology, social psychology, and biochemistry in a team teaching format;
2. academic course credit made available through multiple disciplines and programs;
3. extensive use of the latest multimedia technology in the class room and real time use of the world wide web in interactive class sessions;
4. inclusion of assigned readings and class presentations of data based on faculty and students' research on their own campus population;
5. an active learning strategy that requires students to produce informative scripts of what they have learned in their own words that are presented to the class for review and videotaped and presented on a campus multimedia information network for the community at large;
6. an emphasis on proactive prevention approaches that reduce students' misperceptions of their peer norms;
7. campus community education through the presentation and promotion of individual and group projects created in the course in campus-wide events and displays, all of which are interlinked with mass media and electronic promotions of these displays and events.

Contact information:

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) 781-3422
E-mail: perkins@hws.edu

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