Counseling Services
ATOD - Grant Funding
Department of Education Grant Summary
"Increasing alcohol awareness and decreasing high-risk drinking through social marketing"

In the Spring of 2003, UMC applied for a grant through the United States Department of Education titled "Changing the Culture of Drinking on a Small University Campus".  UMC was one of only thirteen colleges awarded grant money out of the one-hundred fifty-nine colleges that applied for the grant.

The two-year grant-funded program, in conjunction with UMC's existing ATOD (Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drug) Awareness Program, will implement a comprehensive campus-wide alcohol prevention program using a blend of two approaches-Social Norming and Environmental Management-to target residence hall students, student athletes, and freshmen. To accomplish this we intend to create a social marketing campaign, a campus/community task force prevention team, and an Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) student advisory committee to promote peer education.

Through this program we intend to develop, implement, and evaluate campus and community-based strategies to prevent high-risk drinking among college students.

Our desired outcomes include:

  • A reduction in the frequency of binge drinking and other negative consequences of alcohol use and abuse
  • An increase in awareness of the misperceptions of social norms and alcohol policies, and
  • Sponsorship of peer education programs by instituting a campus-wide alcohol prevention program.

Our data collection, research, and social norms approach are based out of the book by H. Wesley Perkins entitled The Social Norms Approach to Preventing School and College Age Substance Abuse: A Handbook for Educators, Counselors, and Clinicians.

Thank you to our grant writers:

  • Don Cavalier, Director of Counseling and Career Services
  • Meloni Rasmussen, Senior Administrative Specialist
  • Elizabeth Tollefson, Assistant Director of Development