University of Missouri Program Decreases Alcohol Consumption on Campus
For years, the University of Missouri at Columbia (MU) has touted that it runs a dry campus and that college students refrain from consuming alcohol while on university property. Anyone attending – or that has attended – this Big 12 school knows that alcohol accompanies many a celebratory event, both on and off campus.
Administrators are not blind to this activity, either and according to a recent KSDK report, one school program has been able to decrease the binge drinking activities on campus over the last five years.
The U.S. Department of Education is so impressed with this program that the organization is recognized by the organization. The Wellness Resource Center has been cited as a model program. As a result, the U.S. Department of Education has awarded the program with a grant.
Money from this grant is expected to be used to start a new project: “Life is Not a Spectator Sport”. This new program will focus on encouraging students to intervene in the risky behavior of other students.
To earn the designation of a “model program”, the MU program had to show that it had made a significant impact on the campus community and that it could be successfully implemented on other campuses.
An annual survey conducted by the Wellness Resource Center over the past five years has found that there has been a 25 percent decrease in binge drinking, a 24 percent decrease in binge drinking for students under the age of 21, a 71 percent decrease in the number of students purchasing alcohol without having an ID checked, and a 73 percent decrease in underage students receiving alcohol from someone they knew at the bar.
