UpDate - Vol. 16, No. 6
October 10, 1996
AMA, UD, Newark join to halt binge drinking

     The University and the city of Newark are joining five other
universities and their communities across the country in a new,
major national effort to curb high-risk drinking of alcohol among
young people, University President David P. Roselle and Newark
Mayor Ronald L. Gardner announced Oct. 8.
     Funded by the American Medical Association and the Robert
Wood Johnson Foundation, this effort is the first stage of a
seven-year, $8.6 million program aimed at curbing binge drinking
by changing the norms, attitudes, policies and practices
affecting drinking on and off college campuses.
     The UD/City of Newark Community Coalition was selected to
receive the $770,000, five-year grant because of innovative and
cooperative programs already in place to help address the
problem.
     "I am pleased that the University of Delaware has been
selected to take a leadership role in this important project and
that the city is a partner with us," Roselle said. "High-risk
drinking is the number one health and safety issue on college and
university campuses across this country.
     "Our particular project will involve city leaders and UD
faculty, staff, students and parents, all working together on
strategies that present high-risk drinking as a health and safety
issue. Emphasis also will be placed on the rights of victims of
high-risk drinking and the need to change the 'culture' of
student alcohol use. This collaborative effort also will involve
county and state coalitions and other groups, as well as the
public school system, from which a large portion of our student
population is drawn."
     "We have been working with the University for a number of
years, and I personally have been working with David and the
staff on this particular proposal because I think it is an
excellent opportunity to go about studying a problem that is very
significant in our community," Gardner said.
     "I have much concern for the person who is a problem
drinker, but I'm more concerned as mayor of the city with the
results of the drinking, how the adverse behavior affects the
nondrinking student and more specifically, for the city, the
nondrinking resident who is adversely affected by the people who
have been drinking heavily and as a result of that have caused
disturbances, caused physical damage, caused disruption in the
community," he said. According to the AMA, on one-third of
American campuses, more than half the students are binge
drinkers. Binge drinking is generally defined as the consumption
of five or more drinks in a row for men (four for women), one or
more times during a two-week period. An AMA survey earlier this
year revealed that 20 percent of Americans, between the ages 18
and 30, reported binge drinking, and many of them admitted
drunken driving.
     In the Delaware project, entitled "Building Responsibility:
A Campus/Community Coalition," the University of Delaware/City of
Newark Community Coalition will plan and implement new policies,
programs and publicity, all designed to reduce high-risk drinking
among college students.
     Other recipients of five-year planning and implementation
grants are the University of Vermont (Burlington), the University
of Colorado at Boulder and Lehigh University.
     The University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of
Iowa (Iowa City) each received one-year development grants of
$60,000. These two schools will be eligible for planning and
implementation funding.
     According to Dr. Nancy W. Dickey, AMA board chair, "The
schools that we've selected have shown a determination to deal
with a problem that almost every university shares.
     "Binge drinking is high-risk behavior that disrupts
institutions of higher education, endangers the drinkers and
victimizes their fellow students with violence, vandalism,
harassment, unplanned and unprotected sex and accidental injury.
You cannot drink and think. The AMA is extremely pleased to be
working with universities that are national leaders in the fight
to reduce underage and binge drinking," she said.
     "Many university leaders consider binge drinking to be the
most serious problem on American campuses," Dr. Steven A.
Schroeder, president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said.
"The schools and communities selected to receive grants have
exhibited the qualities necessary to turn this deeply entrenched
problem around-vision, commitment, ability. For many of the
schools, the awards are a means to expand and accelerate work
already under way."
                                                    -John Brennan