AlcoholEdu: Drinking tips for all RIC students

If you have visited the RIC Web site lately, you have probably stumbled upon the link that reads AlcoholEdu, an online alcohol prevention program for RIC freshmen. But what is this program?

AlcoholEdu is an online course designed for college freshmen in order to inform them about the dangers of alcohol and the effect it has on their bodies. Dean of Students Scott Kane, who heads the Office of Student Life, has set up a contract with a company called Outside the Classroom, which supplied the software for RIC to use as a means for educating students about alcohol. This is the fifth year that RIC has implemented this alcohol education program. Kane has made it one of his top priorities to inform incoming freshmen about the use of alcohol.

The course is mandatory for freshmen and is divided into two parts. The first part takes about 2½ hours to complete and is done in late August or early September. In this part of the course, the students are presented with surveys, information and videos about different attitudes towards alcohol, and at the end, they are tested on what they learned. In order to complete this and move on to the second stage, students must get a grade of 75 or above.

The second part is much shorter – it only takes about 10 minutes to complete, and is taken 45 days after the first part in order to gauge students' reactions to the program and see if it has long-term effects.

Students may take breaks while completing the program simply by signing out. When they wish to complete the survey, they may pick up where they left off. The information gathered from this program remains confidential, and Dean Kane, the faculty, or any members of RIC's staff cannot see individual responses. This year, over 1,000 freshmen have completed the program.

One of the reasons the AlcoholEdu program is so helpful is because of the software it uses. The technology responds to the kinds of answers that students share. For example, thanks to the program, Kane and his staff have learned that every year, about 45 percent of the freshmen class state that they are not drinkers.

If you fall into this category, it doesn't mean that you should disregard this program. It is very helpful when it comes to teaching students how to cope with friends who abuse alcohol, the program's supporters say.

"The program says, ‘Here is what you do in a real emergency situation when you come across someone that's had too much to drink,'" Kane said, and that is why he feels so strongly about having all freshmen complete the course. It is far-reaching, and educates all students: those who drink at parties, and those who do not, he said.

The AlcoholEdu program targets incoming freshmen over college juniors and seniors because the company, Outside the Classroom, has found that most non-drinkers pick up drinking in their first two months at college. This is known as the "college effect."

Even at RIC, the statistics have come back after the second portion of the program to show that the number of non-drinkers has dropped from 45 to 40 percent. Here, the college effect has a much smaller recorded impact than at other colleges around the country. Kane believes this may be due to the fact that students have previous morals about drinking, many of those who attend RIC are commuters, and the college offers more alternatives to drinking in order to have fun.

According to Kane, all this is an indication that, perhaps, AlcoholEdu is really having a positive impact on students at RIC.

The program is not set up to follow up on students past their freshman year, but Kane and his staff are working on a way to do so, and are planning to conduct a small study on the impact of AlcoholEdu in the long run. The contract between Outside the Classroom and RIC is coming to an end after this year, but Kane is optimistic when it comes to implementing this, or any other alcohol education program in the future, of continued success.

If you are a freshman and haven't completed the course, the Office of Student Life advises you to do so as soon as possible. There is a lot to learn from taking this course, including the signs of alcohol poisoning and how to treat it, officials say.

If you are not a freshman and still wish to take the course, you can contact Dean Kane by e-mail at skane@ric.edu.