Back to Campus with a Focus on Preventing Alcohol Misuse

This fall, more than 19 million students are expected to head to college, including around 2 million recent high school graduates. For first-year students especially, the coming year will be both transformative and challenging as they adjust to the rigors of their classes and work to manage their time, while also engaging in new social situations and experiencing their new-found independence and freedom.

These challenges of college life can bring about risky behavior. Research shows that the first few months of college are an extremely high-risk period of time when it comes to alcohol misuse, especially for first-year students, as they experiment with alcohol. Many term it the “College Effect.” According to the 2023 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), nearly half of full-time college students ages 18 to 25 reported they drank alcohol in the past month, and nearly a third reported they had engaged in binge drinking in the past month.

Building Effective Prevention Programs

Alcohol misuse can lead to negative consequences, including harming students’ mental and physical health and their academics. It can also increase the risk of injuries, motor vehicle crashes, and becoming a victim of sexual assault.

To help students avoid these consequences, it is important for colleges and universities to develop well-rounded alcohol misuse prevention programs. Effective prevention programs may include:

• Whole-campus prevention programs, as well as targeted prevention programs for especially vulnerable populations, such as freshmen students.
• Coordinated messaging and communications campaigns throughout campus and throughout the students’ time on campus.
• Data-driven curriculum that teaches students about the risks of substance misuse, bystander intervention, and helps them practice making good choices. Curriculum can include a mix of both in-person and online courses and activities.
• Easily-to-access resources, including counselors, health care providers, and recovery support.
• Partnerships with organizations on campus, with the broader community, and with parents.

Turning Prevention into Practice

Prevention programs that include community-building initiatives can be especially powerful in promoting a safe, welcoming environment and helping to mitigate the College Effect. Ohio Wesleyan University, for example, created a multifaceted initiative to support student success that included a six-day orientation program for new students, a summer bridge program to support incoming students who are considered at-risk due to their identity, a first-generation office specifically to support and celebrate students who are the first in their families to attend college, and more.

The components of the initiative were designed to help students feel like they are part of a campus community from day one.  All incoming students are required to take Vector Solutions’ courses on sexual assault prevention, hazing, alcohol misuse, and mental well-being, providing them with a baseline of knowledge that aligns with their broader prevention efforts.

Another example of a strong prevention program is Eastern Illinois University (EIU), which used data collected through Vector Solutions’ AlcoholEdu® for College program to develop a suite of prevention resources, including on-campus messaging and programs. It partnered with its local city to expand prevention-focused communication to the broader community. By partnering with Vector Solutions, EIU reduced at-risk drinking behaviors by 34%.

In both examples, the prevention work was strategic and effective in creating a safer campus community.

Creating Prevention Programming With Vector Solutions’ AlcoholEdu® for College

Vector Solutions provides engaging, expert-authored online courses that equip campus members with the skills and abilities to reinforce healthy, safe decision-making when it comes to alcohol and other drugs. Its AlcoholEdu® for College online course has been taken by more than 11 million first-year college students and has been tested and proven effective in eight peer-reviewed studies.

It provides students with a baseline of knowledge about the risks of consuming alcohol and helps them make informed decisions about alcohol use once they start college. Many colleges and universities have made AlcoholEdu® for College a core part of their prevention programming and require all incoming students to take the course before beginning classes. Course topics include:

• The Effects of Alcohol and Other Drugs
• Ways to Support Non-Drinkers
• Recognizing and Intervening in an Overdose
• The Role of Alcohol in Consent

The course is part of Vector Solutions’ Alcohol and Drug Misuse Prevention Library. Additional courses include:

• Alcohol and Other Drugs
• CannabisEdu
• Prescription Drug Misuse Prevention
• Prescription Misuse: Opioids

College can be an exciting time in a young person’s life, full of personal, social, and academic growth. By implementing well-rounded, data-driven, campus-wide prevention programs, institutions can support students in making good choices and create safe, welcoming environments where students will thrive and succeed.