Alcohol Abuse on College Campuses-"Tell Me Something I Don't Know"

It certainly is no secret that alcohol abuse is a very real concern, and a very real problem on college campuses around the country, to some , it is even considered a right of passage and part of the college experience. However, the question remains, "Can anything be done to turn this irresponsible, dangerous and reckless behavior around?" I'm here to tell you I think that there is hope.

I am a 15 year trainer of the TIPS Alcohol Awareness Program of Health Communications Inc., based in Arlington, Virginia. I got certified as part of Miller Brewing Company's Responsibility Initiatives Program when I was employed by a wholesale beer distributorship in Cleveland, Ohio. At first, I treated the certification as "just another part of my job", and didn't do too much with the training outside of what was scheduled for me to do in the community.

As I started to pay closer attention to all the notifications, newsletters and updates that came my way as part of this position, I began to notice that there was a real opportunity to change typical schools of thought about alcohol misconceptions one consumer, server parent or law enforcement officer at a time. The single biggest opportunity I felt was to address the facts around alcohol abuse that exist on college campuses.

This was a very slow process at first, to say the least, and I even found myself taking the path of least resistance to schedule trainings by concentrating my efforts on those in the actual alcohol serving industry that had to implement training(s) for fear of not being able to either obtain or afford liquor liability insurance premiums.