U-Choose receives $300,000 to raise alcohol awareness

SCSU has been chosen to receive a grant for nearly $300,000 from the United States Department of Education.

After going through a competitive process, SCSU was one of 20 schools across the nation to receive this grant intended to increase awareness of high-risk alcohol consumption.

Robert Reff, Interim Assistant Dean of Students for Chemical Health and Outreach Programming, is also the developer of U-Choose, an alcohol awareness program located right on campus. With the money SCSU has received, Reff said he hopes to expand U-Choose outside of the community.

Some think that college drinking is inevitable.

“There is a lot of drinking [at SCSU]. On campus, off campus, it really doesn’t matter. Compared to high school, I’d consider it quite a shocker,” Martin Whiting, a former SCSU student said.

With that in mind, this grant, planned to spread out over a two-year period, is designed to try to reduce the high-risk consequences of drinking.

Although many believe that drinking on campus will never disappear completely, both the U.S. Department of Education and the SCSU faculty said they believe there is hope for the coming years.

“If you look at nation-wide trends, it will suggest that high-risk drinking is increasing. However, on our campus, it is shown in the last couple of years that we are decreasing,” Reff said.

Along with supporting students who chose to drink wisely, U-Choose also supports the 10-20 percent of students on campus who said they do not drink at all.
Reff said these flexible and understanding principles of this program ultimately gives students the option to choose.

“We want students to know the consequences of high-risk drinking. For example, alcohol related death, detox, getting into fights, relationship problems, and academic problems that stems from their alcohol use. They need to know how it affects them and how it impacts them,” Reff said.

Many believe serious consequences of drinking alcohol can be prevented with more education.

“My first semester, I can count at least three times an ambulance had to come to my dorm and two of them were alcohol related,” Whiting said.

Both faculty and community members of St. Cloud are focused on trying to get as many students involved as possible. U-Choose recently used $25,000 of the grant money to acquire Subway gift certificates to act as incentives for students to join the program, according to Reff.

Administrators, U-Choose staff and even property managers who want their student tenants to get involved in a program that highlights the consequences of high-risk drinking will give out these incentives.

“We try to bring the programming to students who aren’t living on campus,” Reff said.
As well as expanding this grant to students who live off campus, SCSU is pairing with St. Cloud Technical College (SCTC) in order to spread the word to a maximum amount of students.

“St. Cloud Technical College is in the same system as we are and they don’t have much alcohol programming there,” Reff said.

Over the two-year period that the grant is in effect, it is expected that thousands of students at SCSU and SCTC will benefit from the increased alcohol awareness both on and off campus.

Many hope the number of students harmed by high-risk drinking will continue to shrink as U-Choose spreads further into the community.