Harvard University appointed Ryan Travia, coordinator for alcohol and other drug education programs at Dartmouth, as its director of alcohol and substance abuse services late last month. Following his unannounced resignation, Travia will serve beginning Aug. 1, leaving a legacy of successful alcohol and drug awareness programs behind him.
Travia's selection was recommended by a 13-person committee that wanted to address concerns of an increase in alcohol poisoning cases at Harvard. He is being charged with creating an over-arching alcohol and drug use program for the institution.
In an interview with the Harvard Crimson, Travia said that he plans on creating a peer-advising program for alcohol and drug abuse. A similar program is in place at the College, involving several Dartmouth undergraduates.
Working with the College Health Service, Travia has aided many efforts that concern alcohol on campus.
Travia played a large role in revising the recently-approved Social Event Managing Procedures policy, which regulates alcohol use at student functions. He also collaborated with students to amend the Good Samaritan policy, a provision which allows undergraduates to notify Safety and Security of an ill friend without major consequences.
Dean of Residential Life Martin Redman emphasized the ability of Travia to create successful programs with real results, and hopes the various initiatives continue with the next coordinator.
"I would think all of those things would continue on," Redman said. "They've been successful programs so there's no reason for us to stop them."
As a 2001 graduate from Boston College, the Harvard search committee chose Travia, in part, because of his age. The student committee members said they believed his youthfulness would foster a better understanding of Harvard undergraduates.
Although no committee has been organized yet, Dartmouth's own search for Travia's replacement will not necessarily seek a young person, Redman said.
"It's not about age, it's about how they connect with students," Redman said, but also noted, "I think students closer to his age connect in a different way certainly than someone my age."
When Travia begins creating a new alcohol and drug program at Harvard, he hopes to "affirm the positive, healthy choices that most Harvard students are making when it comes to alcohol, while designing appropriate interventions for those students who may be presenting at higher-risk for substance abuse and dependency," Travia told The Crimson.
Travia employed similar efforts at Dartmouth, especially when he helped organize the Health Service's aggressive Social Norms campaign. This program attempts to quell certain myths about alcohol use on campus through an extensive annual spring survey.
One of the more visible components of the Norms program is its branded Nalgene bottles, which are distributed free of charge to students upon completion of a survey and counseling brief. Travia works with the Health Service department in coining the Nalgene slogans, which most recently read, "73 percent of Dartmouth students eat food before they drink."
Travia said the slogans are formulated by "creative groups," which must take the data and present catchy phrases.
"The groups created over 30 'believable' messages from the data," Travia told The Dartmouth in 2004. "Before the marketing process, we did a message testing phase, asking 300 students to comment on believability and understanding of the message."
Despite certain controversies with Travia's programs, such as when an applied probability mathematics course questioned the legitimacy of the Nalgene slogans, during his tenure alcohol use has decreased on campus, according to the survey. In January 2004, Travia noted that while "alcohol is clearly [Dartmouth's] drug of choice," the percentage of students who identified themselves as non-drinkers in the Social Norms poll has risen from 13.5 percent in 2002 to 19.2 percent last year.
Furthermore, this year's Social Norms day saw a notable increase in participants, while campus alcohol counseling offices did not witness a significant increase in appointments, according to Travia.
Travia played other roles in the Dartmouth community as well. In 2004 he became the faculty adviser for Bones Gate fraternity.
Travia was out of the office for the week and unable to comment on his departure.
