WSU to manage anti-drinking campaign

By Lynette Murphy

The Self-Help Network from WSU has been selected to work on an anti-drinking campaign targeting four Kansas universities.

The new media campaign, funded by a Kansas Health Foundation grant, aims to apply a positive, realistic approach to reducing the number of students engaging in unhealthy drinking.

WSU is receiving nearly $550,000 to manage the project, which includes reviewing program applications, chairing the technical review committee, monitoring implementation and providing feedback to the participating universities. The network’s executive director, Greg Meissen, was selected as the project director based on his understanding of the model, familiarity with academic settings and his knowledge of the state, says Mary Campuzano, the Kansas Health Foundation’s vice president for programs.

The five-year program aims to prevent drinking that places students at risk for unhealthy behaviors. Kansas State University, the University of Kansas, Emporia State University and Fort Hays State University will participate.

At Northern Illinois University, where a similar program has been in place since 1989, heavy drinking has decreased by 44 percent. In all, four universities, including Arizona University and the University of Missouri-Columbia, have had success with the program, citing decreases in heavy drinking ranging from 17 to 28 percent. Michael Haines, who developed the NIU program, is directing the Kansas program with Meissen, a WSU psychology professor.

Why the successes? “Scare tactics don’t work when it comes to this kind of prevention,” says Meissen. “An honest, truthful approach is best.”

Most universities have anti-drinking programs, such as displaying a wrecked car in the middle of campus one week a year, with a sign saying something like: “This could be yours if you drive drunk.”

“Those kind of displays are the reasons students mistakenly think their peers drink heavily, frequently and dangerously,” Meissen says. “It’s time that we stopped preaching to them and instead present them with what’s really happening.”