Even before the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation project to promote responsible drinking on campus and in the community was launched in Newark nearly three years ago, Ron Gardner was involved.

Gardner, who has served Newark for more than 15 years as either mayor or a member of City Council, had been active in the National League of Cities, serving on its University-Community Caucus subcommittee. He says he gained a wider perspective from working with people from other small cities around the country where a university was located and where the campus had a significant impact on the community.

“When we submitted the RWJF proposal, I looked at it as an opportunity to attack a problem that I knew was widespread,” Gardner, who serves as co-chairperson of the Building Responsibility Coalition, says. “I knew that the way to address the issue was not just from the city’s end, but with a collaborative approach involving the University and with assistance from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

“All my experiences over the years with other mayors and elected officials in college communities told me that, without exception, the primary problem was alcohol-related parties,” Gardner says. “So, I knew the problem did not exist just in Newark. I also knew that we in Newark are doing more than most, but we still have a problem.”

Although local newspaper articles address the high number of student rentals in the city, Gardner says the issue is not the number of homes rented by students, but the loud parties and neighborhood problems that result from the abuse of alcohol.

“It’s student off-campus behavior that’s the key,” Gardner says.

Like other community leaders involved in the collaborative UD-Newark-RWJF effort, Gardner says he believes new measures taken by the University to curtail abusive drinking on campus and to notify parents if students violate drinking regulations are positive steps. Although active community and business involvement also are important for change, he says, education and information about the short- and long-term effects of alcohol abuse are most important.

“We have to work with students,” he says. “We need to stress the high risk of excessive drinking. They have to realize the risks are serious. Some of the adverse results include personal injury, assault, property damage, humiliation, unwanted sexual advances and date rape. Unfortunately, many students don’t think about the consequences until it’s too late.

“We’ve definitely made progress,” Gardner says, “but when you’re trying to change an environment that has existed for a long period of time, it is a very slow process. We’re not talking about prohibition. Our emphasis is on ending binge drinking. We want the students to join the team. We also want to tell students that they are not invulnerable.”

Many students in the 18- to 22-year-old age group think they are immune to disease, accidents and tragedy. Also, Gardner says, they think they can drink without short- or long-term ill effects.

“They think they can just turn it on and off,” Gardner says, “and sometimes that’s not possible. I have more concern for those who are adversely impacted by binge drinking— the victims—than the binge drinker. But, I also feel bad for the young person who comes to the University with a genetic disposition toward alcohol—because of one’s family history—and peer pressure gets to them. Some of these students are affected and, over the long term, become alcoholics.

“We’ve got to change perceptions,” Gardner says. “The perception is, generally, that ‘everybody does it.’ The reality is that the minority of student drinkers are binge drinkers, but other students think the number is between 90 and 95 percent. When peer pressure gets involved, our efforts become very difficult.”

Cooperation among students, the University and the community is the key, Gardner says. “This is a long-term effort,” he says. “My hope is that during this five-year challenge, we will have established some priorities, and we will make some changes that will continue. From what I’ve seen, there is enough interest and momentum that the campus staff and the city staff will continue these efforts.”

The Rev. Cliff Armour, pastor of Newark United Methodist Church for the last 14 years, also has a long-term interest in Newark. He lives in the community and his church, located on Main Street, is passed each weekend by hundreds of students and visitors who make the rounds of city establishments selling alcohol.

Soon after the University and city of Newark kicked off their five-year Robert Wood Johnson Foundation project to curb binge drinking in the college town, Armour was named Community Committee chairperson, and he has held that position ever since.

Armour says the program’s objective is not to develop a group of teetotalers, but to teach consumers to be responsible if they choose to consume alcohol. “I think there has been a lot more cooperation from the University side than from the community. But, in the University setting, the staff can create rules and regulations because of the administrative support of the program.

“In the community, there has to be much more of a coalition-building approval process. We must convince the community that there is a problem and then get them involved in solving it.”

According to Armour, four main accomplishments over the past three years include:

Delivering alternative community activities of a non-alcoholic nature or with limited access to alcohol.

Working with local and state law enforcement to discuss changes in the regulation of drink specials and to request that more Alcohol Beverage Control Commission (ABCC) agents work in Newark.

Establishing an alliance with area high schools that feed students to the University and present the image of UD as an educational institution and not a traditional party school.

Getting city residents to recognize that binge drinking is not a UD problem, but a community problem, since the community provides the alcohol UD students and others consume.

According to Armour, bar and restaurant owners attending the committee meetings have been positive. “They are willing to cooperate if all the other owners cooperate. Otherwise, they believe some will have an advantage over the rest.”

“Many of the restaurants and bars on Main Street already had a policy of providing free soda to patrons who identified themselves as designated drivers,” Tracy Bachman, research associate in the Center for Drug and Alcohol Studies, says. “Through the RWJF grant, we were able to provide posters that encourage this and were pleased when all the establishments that serve alcohol agreed to post them. We think the posters serve as reminders for both servers and patrons that the program is available.”

Since taking over the Community Committee, the most eye-opening information, from Amour’s perspective, has been the young age at which people begin to drink and the excessive amounts that are consumed. “Also,” he says, “it’s disturbing that young people say that it doesn’t make a difference to their parents. They say their parents tell them, ‘It’s okay. Just don’t get caught.’”

Those comments led to the establishment of the University Schools Alliance, which enables UD students and staff to visit area high schools to spread the message that binge drinking is not wise, healthy or tolerated at UD.

“We were pleasantly astounded when the school alliance was announced,” Armour says. “We were looking to sign on some pilot schools and sent out a letter requesting participation. We had many more schools respond than we could handle.

“We ended up with Salesianum, St. Mark’s, Charter School, Newark, Brandywine and Tatnall high schools. We try to provide whatever resources are needed to make an impact on the lives of their students—videos on alcohol abuse, student visits, athletic talks and wellness information.”

His involvement in the project has been satisfying, Armour says, and while he has learned a lot, there is a lot left to be done.

“What we are involved in,” he says, “is a public health approach to the problem of alcohol abuse. We are not here to reprimand and punish. We are here to show the consequences of binge drinking—lower grades, health problems, acts of violence. We’re trying to say there is a better way to live.”