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Western Carolinian Volume 68 Number 09

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  • WCU JOINS $2.4 MILLION ALCOHOL ABUSE RESEARCH EFFORT Research Efforts Focus on Student Alcohol Abuse WCU is among 10 colleges and universities in the Southeast selected to participate in a $2.4 million effort led by researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine to reduce alcohol-related problems among college students. Through the study, researchers will seek to understand environmental factors in the campus and community that contribute to high-risk drinking behaviors by college students and then organize campus/community coalitions to implement focused strategies to change those environmental factors. The three-year project, funded by grants from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, is designed to determine what approaches work best in the reduction of excessive drinking on campuses. The grant has enabled Western to create a new campus and community coordinator position to work with researchers from Wake Forest on the development of a comprehensive alcohol abuse prevention program. Elizabeth Likis-Werle, a licensed counselor from Asheville, is now in that role and is beginning to schedule meetings with individuals and groups from the campus and surrounding community. Western was selected for the program because of its recent efforts to address problems of alcohol abuse, said Robert H. DuRant, a pediatric researcher at Brenners Childrens Hospital at Wake Forest and principal investigator for the grant project. We were impressed with Westerns commitment to address high-risk drinking behaviors by students, and I am optimistic that this will be a productive partnership that will result in a safer environment for students to learn, DuRant said. We know that certain things work - such as establishing compliance checks for places that sell alcoholic beverages to students - and we anticipate that some of the plans will be the same from college to college. Our goal is to look at what is working at Western and elsewhere so we can devise a plan that others can use. March 16 Campus Visit Set For Education Chairman Howard Lee, chairman of the N.C. State Board of Education, will visit Western Carolina University Tuesday, March 16, to participate in a public reception and forum. The reception at 3:45 P.M. will be followed by a 4:15 P.M. forum in which Lee will respond to questions. Both events will be held in the Grandroom of Westerns A.K. Hinds University Center. N.C. Gov. Mike Easley appointed Lee to the State Board of Education in May 2003 to fill an unexpired term, and Lee was unanimously elected chairman of the board by its members. He is the first African-American to hold that post. e A former mayor of Chapel Hill, Lee formerly served in the state Senate, where he gained a reputation as an advocate for education and led efforts to improve school safety and accountability and teacher quality. In addition to owning several businesses, Lee is employed part time with the Jim Hunt Institute. His term on the State Board of Education ends in March 2005. Lees visit to Western is sponsored by the Chancellors Office, and College of Education and Allied Professions. Individuals wishing to attend the reception and forum are asked to R.S.V.P. by Wednesday, March 10, by contacting Carol Burton at (828) 227-7056, or by e- mail at burton@email.wcu.edu. Western received a $15,000 grant from the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States in 2002 to work with area restaurant owners, store managers, local law enforcement and public school officials, with some of the funding going toward the purchase of portable testing devices to determine blood-alcohol content. The university also received an $875 grant from the town of Sylva in 2003 to offer free training for employees of Sylva businesses that sell alcohol, through the Training for Intervention ProcedureS program. The TIPS program is designed to teach servers and sellers of alcohol ways of preventing intoxification, drunken driving and underage drinking among their customers. Western, through its Division of Student Affairs, also has offered alcohol awareness programs at Western North Carolina elementary and high schools, developed an online alcohol assessment process in conjunction with National Alcohol Screening Day, and distributed designated driver materials to area alcohol retailers. Our involvement in the Wake Forest project is another example of our on-going strategies to bring together campus and community resources in a focused manner to address alcohol issues on campus and in the immediate service area of Western, said Robert Caruso, WCUs vice chancellor for student affairs. Were attempting to address alcohol use and abuse from multiple perspectives - the university, public schools, community organizations, retailers, and law enforcement. For more information or to schedule a meeting with the campus and community coordinator, contact Elizabeth Likis-Werle at (828) 227-3774, or via e-mail at elikis@email.wcu.edu. al involvement, and lead LR PIAL SLR LODO D DG DOGS ASSESS pers SP aa raion act EPPA DS ii rs atl at epi paitc Ei PE PLO DA PPLE 4 ; SARS inte
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