Campus Leaders Reaffirm Substance Abuse Mission

MIDDLETOWN — Presidents and other campus leaders from public, private, and military institutions of higher learning across the state came together recently to reaffirm their commitment to reducing underage and high-risk drinking and other substance abuse on Connecticut campuses.

Representing more than 20 campuses, the gathering at Wesleyan University marked the first time that leaders of institutions of higher learning in Connecticut had met to address high-risk drinking among students since January 2006, when they signed an unprecedented agreement to support the Connecticut Statewide Healthy Campus Initiative through their membership.

Led by Governor M. Jodi Rell, the state Department of Mental Health, and Addiction Services and the state Department of Higher Education, the campus initiative has spurred colleges and universities to step up prevention and early intervention efforts against binge drinking and other substance abuse.

Former Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare Joseph A. Califano, president and chairman of the National Center for Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA), delivered the keynote speech. Mr Califano’s appearance was the first time he had visited Connecticut since CASA released its study Wasting the Best and the Brightest: Substance Abuse at America’s Colleges and Universities and was the largest group of college and university officials in the state he had addressed.

The study found that half of full-time college students binge drink, abuse prescription medications, and/or use illegal drugs with nearly a quarter meeting the criteria for substance abuse addiction or dependence.

Mr Califano, who most recently published High Society: How Substance Abuse is Ravaging America and What to Do About It, urged campus leaders to persevere in their efforts to combat the alarming public health crisis that college substance abuse presents.

“By failing to become part of the solution, presidents, deans, trustees, alumni, and parents have become part of the problem,” said Mr Califano, who served as Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare in the Carter Administration and domestic advisor to President Lyndon B. Johnson. “Alcohol and other drug abuse threatens not only the present well-being of millions of college students, but also the future capacity of our nation to maintain its leadership in this world of fierce global competition. It is time to get the high out of higher education.”

Declaring the problem a top public health priority, college and university leaders, state officials and students highlighted the strong groundwork the initiative has laid toward curbing high-risk substance abuse on campuses statewide. Throughout Connecticut, campuses have devoted increased attention and resources to educating students and changing their attitudes about binge drinking and other high-risk behavior.

 “Through working together with so many different professionals lending their expertise to the issue, I really see the progress we made, and more importantly, where we can get to if we continue in this collaboration,” said Walter Bernstein, vice president of student affairs at Western Connecticut State University. “I am encouraged and will continue with the efforts we have begun because I know we have made a difference.”

Leadership awards for Outstanding Prevention Efforts were presented to college presidents for substance-abuse prevention work at the Individual Level, Campus Level, or Community Level.

The awards represent accomplishments over the past two years that include greater outreach to community groups, wider offering of alcohol-free activities, tougher enforcement, strengthened alcohol policies, increased education about the dangers of excessive drinking, and earlier screening of students with potential substance-abuse problems.

DMHAS Deputy Commissioner Peter Rockholz praised the leadership that Connecticut’s higher institutions of learning had demonstrated by acknowledging the magnitude of problem drinking and other substance abuse and acting on it.

 “We will ensure that the prevention of the abuse of alcohol and other drugs remains a priority of our university leadership,” Mr Rockholz said.