UMass' anti-binge drinking effort gets notice

By Kristin Palpini
Staff Writer

Published on September 05, 2008

AMHERST - As a freshman, when Amato Zinno told his friends he would be attending UMass they congratulated him on being accepted to one of the nation's best party schools.

But when Zinno was at his home on Cape Cod this summer, people who learned of his ties to the University of Massachusetts patted him on the back for studying at a top research university.

"The image is better, there's a different perception of UMass now," said Zinno, a UMass junior. "Two years ago it was a party school; now it's a great school, but not that much has changed."

While the average student may not recognize it, things have changed at UMass: 2006 was a critical year for the university's flagship in Amherst. That year UMass was ranked the 7th best party school in the nation by the Princeton Review.

It was also the year that UMass launched an aggressive alcohol-awareness campaign that officials say has helped to reduce student binge drinking by 38 percent. UMass also strengthened its rules regarding alcohol on campus, cutting down on the number of people allowed to attend dorm parties, banning drinking games such as beer pong and Beirut and prohibiting the possession of empty alcohol containers by anyone under age 21.

Officials say the work has paid off.

"It's amazing when you focus your resources, look at the research, pull the best practices and take a campus and community approach," said Sally A. Linowski, UMass associate director of health education and community outreach and marketing.

A spotlight was recently trained on problematic student drinking with the creation of the Amethyst Initiative, a group of 129 college and university presidents and chancellors calling for a serious debate on lowering the drinking age to 18. Among the initiative's supporters are UMass President Jack M. Wilson, UMass Amherst Chancellor Robert C. Holub and the presidents of Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith colleges.

Every year college drinking causes 1,700 student deaths and 79,000 sexual assaults in the United States, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

"Binge drinking and alcohol abuse by college students are serious national issues. They require a wide-ranging debate about all aspects of alcohol use, including the effectiveness of current policies and laws," Holub said in a statement.

"On the UMass Amherst campus we are addressing binge drinking and alcohol abuse through our strong and sustained, nationally recognized prevention and education programs, and when necessary, through sanctions," he said.

The "nationally recognized" program Holub referred to is the university's BASICS alcohol and other drug abuse prevention program. In late July, the BASICS program was recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as an "exemplary" model program. The honor came with a $199,000 grant to expand the program and educate other higher education campuses about its success and possible implementation elsewhere.

Since its inception in 2006, more than 2,600 students have participated in BASICS, which stands for Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students. Through the program, students who have been cited for drinking or breaking a campus rule regarding alcohol are required to pay to attend workshops on safe alcohol consumption and fill out surveys about their own drinking habits.

BASICS staff then give students personal feedback about the repercussions of their drinking and how their consumption habits stack up against their peers. Linowski said students often think their peers drink to excess, thus prompting students to feel pressured into drinking more. BASICS staff follow the effect of the program on students by conducting follow-up surveys of students' drinking habits.

The program is also bolstered by a "social norms" campaign that broadcasts via billboards and advertisements what officials call an accurate portrait of student drinking and consequences.

In addition to reducing binge drinking by 38 percent, Linowski said BASICS has also caused a 41 percent decrease in heavy episodic drinking and a 14 percent reduction in underage binge drinking. Running BASICS costs UMass more than $500,000 a year, said Linowski.

UMass students interviewed last week, however, said they did not think the BASICS campaign was having an effect on alcohol consumption.

Drinking "is not as big a problem as people think anyway," said senior Simone L. Mandell, who was talking with a group of friends.

Of the five students congregated outside the Student Union Tuesday afternoon, three had been through the BASICS program. They questioned the program's effectiveness, but added that they thought their alcohol counselor (all three had the same counselor) was "cool" and helpful.

"They cracked down on drinking for their image," said Mandell. "They're trying to make UMass like a private school."

"I don't know anyone who doesn't drink," said Kate F. Silverstein, a sophomore.

But if students may not be convinced BASICS is working, officials at universities across the country are. Linowski said her staff fields two to three calls per week from colleges and universities inquiring about the program.

UMass has brought the BASICS model to at least 25 schools including state universities in Wisconsin, New York and Arizona. The university is also in talks with Texas' higher education consortium to bring BASICS to the Lone Star State, Linowski said.

"We're going to keep doing the great things we're doing, and we hope to have great success," Linowski said

Kristin Palpini can be reached at kpalpini@gazettenet.com..