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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

College students’ use of alcohol, drugs examined

Anne Wallace Allen Associated Press

BOISE – Parents and educators will get a new look at college life in Idaho this academic year after a coalition of health officials surveys thousands of students on drinking, drug use and other behavior.

The new multi-school Idaho College Health Coalition hopes to improve student health and academic success by tackling substance abuse on and off campus. To do that, the organization needs to know the extent of drug and alcohol abuse among students, said Sharon Fritz, a University of Idaho psychologist who helped put the coalition together.

In addition to UI, the coalition includes Boise State University, Idaho State University, Lewis and Clark State College, College of Southern Idaho, North Idaho College, Albertson College of Idaho, Northwest Nazarene University and Brigham Young University-Idaho.

Nazarene and Brigham Young are taking part in some aspects of the coalition’s work, but are not conducting the survey, Fritz said. Officials from the two church-based institutions did not return calls about the survey.

The survey, to be administered in October and November, was designed by the American College Health Association. It’s been used at more than 300 colleges and universities around the country in the last decade, said John Batacan, the director of ISU’s Wellness Center. It’s not just about drugs and alcohol, he said. Students also are asked about physical activity, nutrition and emotional health.

Many Idaho colleges and universities have asked students such questions before, but this is the first time all of them are contributing to the same database, Fritz said. The information gathered will help Idaho educators respond to problems, and help them compare behavior at Idaho schools to behavior at other U.S. campuses.

It will also help them track changes over time, as the survey is administered every few years.

It’s well known that alcohol and drug use are issues at some schools. About 1,700 college students around the country die each year because of alcohol, said Doug Steele, a counselor at Lewis and Clark.

“We do have a problem,” said Steele, whose school has just 500 on-campus students in its 3,500-member student body.

Some community members don’t think campus drinking is a problem, he said.

“The attitude that everybody does it, that ‘Hey, I did it when I was a kid’ … parents have some of that attitude,” Steele said. “That really is evident in our communities around the state, and so kids come to school with that kind of mentality, and that’s part of what the colleges are up against – to try to change that perception.”

Lewis and Clark last surveyed students about substance abuse in 1999, and found that two-thirds of the students were regular drinkers. Half of those drinkers reported problems related to drinking, such as violence or date rape. Steele said he hears about drinking, both on campus and off, but the extent of the problem isn’t clear.

“That’s one of the reasons we want to do the survey,” Steele said.

When college officials know more about students’ behavior, he said, “Hopefully we’ll be able to provide better services and educational opportunities.”

Fritz said she expects to learn that behavior at UI is fairly typical. Schools with fraternities, a lot of freshmen on campus and a strong athletic program tend to have more problems with alcohol, Fritz said. UI meets all those criteria.

On the other hand, BSU has many off-campus students, with an average age of nearly 29, said Ferd Schlapper, executive director of BSU’s Health, Wellness and Counseling Services. About 1,000 of BSU’s 18,600 students live on campus.

“Relatively speaking, we do not have as much of a problem as some other schools are dealing with,” said Schlapper, another coalition member. “That’s not to say we don’t have problems. Sometimes they may be under the surface.”

Those participating in the 20-minute surveys will not be anonymous, but answers will be confidential, said Batacan. The coalition hopes to get an analysis of the results from the American College Health Association in January, he said.

Then the group will meet to discuss the findings and how best to respond.

The coalition received about $14,000 for this year’s survey and other work from the Idaho Office of Juvenile Corrections, Fritz said.