Representatives from over a dozen colleges and universities met in Boston this week to discuss the progress of the National College Health Improvement Program, an initiative begun by former President Jim Yong Kim in 2011 to reduce high-risk drinking across college campuses.
Dartmouth College Health Improvement project director Aurora Matzkin said the NCHIP summit represents the closure of the original learning collaborative that began two years ago. DCHIP is Dartmouth's affiliate branch of the national network.
NCHIP will now transition to its second phase, during which some existing members will form a leadership network and additional schools will be able to join NCHIP.
Matzkin said that NCHIP has been successful at Dartmouth, citing the creation and expansion of BASICS, an alcohol education program begun by Kim to educate students about the risks of binge drinking.
Although originally only mandatory for students who violated the College's alcohol policy, it is now required for incoming varsity athletes, Good Sam recipients and students reported by their undergraduate advisors for drinking violations.
High-risk drinking cases reached a peak during the 2010-2011 academic year when Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and Dick's House saw 80 cases of students with BACs above .25. Maztkin said that although high-level BACs have not been eradicated, the frequency of cases has decreased significantly, with only 31 cases last year.
NCHIP implemented a program in which students complete an assessment of their individual drinking habits and discuss the results with a counselor. These interviews are encourage students to talk about their drinking habits and introduce participants to counseling services.
"Some students do report reduction in drinking within 90 days of doing the program and 180 days follow-up," Matzkin said.
Dartmouth engages in intervention through short conversations with students during primary care visits as well. In this case, the physician will check in with the student about his or her drinking habits.
The United States Preventative Services Task Force recommends that adults over 18 be screened regularly for high-risk drinking.
Tim Marchell, the Mental Health Initiatives director at Cornell University, said that alcohol dependency involves a combination of factors, including difficulty limiting the amount of drinks one consumes or frequently engaging in high-risk drinking.
High-risk drinking is defined as five or more drinks in one sitting for a male, and four or more for a female.
Matzkin said that Dartmouth looked at high-risk drinking data to identify locations on campus where the greatest amount of drinking occurs in Greek houses and residence halls. NCHIP addressed high-risk drinking in residence halls through changes to its undergraduate advising program.
In the spring of 2012, NCHIP implemented a program in Russell Sage residence hall that examined how UGAs interacted with their students regarding alcohol. Matzkin said that they learned that UGAs should connect students with a network of options.
Matzkin said that NCHIP can accommodate expansions to its original program. During spring term, DCHIP expanded its focus to include a team that deals with sexual violence on campus.
Other colleges involved with NCHIP have expanded their policies as well, implementing student bystander programs similar to Dartmouth's Green Team and adding interventions about drinking habits to routine medical appointments.
University of New Hampshire education and promotion director Kathleen Grace-Bishop said NCHIP membership will increase the effectiveness of the university's alcohol policy.
The university adopted NCHIP's public health model and attempted to make changes on individual and community levels, Grace-Bishop said. These changes include alcohol screening for first-year students and an intervention program for high-risk special events such as concerts and homecoming.
Grace-Bishop said that UNH will not participate in the second wave of NCHIP because the university wants to focus on initiatives already on campus.
"We want to make it more institutionalized so it becomes more sustainable," she said.
Cornell alcohol coordinator Deborah Lewis said the "main energy" behind Cornell's involvement in NCHIP stemmed from the death of a student due to a hazing incident that involved alcohol. The death occurred just months before Kim announced plans for the collaborative.
Lewis said that NCHIP includes policies that enable students affiliated with Greek organizations to come together to support alcohol reform. One such policy entails a self-enforced system in which first-year students are not allowed to enter Greek houses during their first six weeks on campus.
"The university has ramped up policy efforts to change the social scene related to alcohol so that first-year students aren't so involved," Lewis said. "We are really allowing freshmen to bond together as a class."
Other policies include evaluating and screening students for alcohol dependency when they seek medical attention for other issues. Lewis said that health educators perform "motivational interviews" that contain questions such as, "what do you like and not about drinking and what changes do you want to make?"
"In terms of primary care screenings, high-risk drinking can often be connected with emotional issues so it's important to address them in a holistic way," Marchell said.
If there is an indication of both a mental health problem and problematic drinking patterns, the medical professional can put the student in touch with additional resources, Marchell said.
Cornell is currently focusing on finding ways to expand dry events on campus during the night, Lewis said. The school is also looking at how its drinking culture impacts the institution in addition to assessing drinking on the individual level.
"What can we do as a community where alcohol use is part of a culture of high risk drinking?" Lewis asked. "We must change the culture to promote drinking in moderation and less drinking overall."
During monthly meetings, schools created a forum was to allow participating institutions to share information about the best health practices.
Annie Stevens, associate vice president of campus life at the University of Vermont, said that UVM joined NCHIP because of the program's cross-campus information, research and strategy-sharing policy.
"I think this is a long-term endeavor for all the colleges," she said. "I do think the strategies we are employing and that we will employ over the next years will bring about results."
Stevens said that UVM focused its outreach on a parent-engagement strategy. If parents send clear signals to their children about appropriate drinking, students will have lower levels of high-risk drinking.
"We are keeping parents informed about what's happening on campus, such as alcohol-free events and how students can be healthy and safe," Stevens said. "Parents don't want to see their son or daughter hurt or harmed they are heavily invested in their student's success."
