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About Us

Creation of the Task Force on College Drinking

In response to the increasingly complex issue of alcohol abuse among college students, the National Advisory Council on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism created the Task Force on College Drinking in 1998.

Prior NIAAA Activities on College Drinking

NIAAA has maintained a small portfolio of grants on this issue for many years; however, this Task Force represents an effort to address this issue in the most coordinated, comprehensive manner possible.


Composition of the Task Force

The Task Force comprises college presidents, researchers, and students. The two co-chairs of the Task Force are Reverend Edward Malloy, President of the University of Notre Dame and Dr. Mark Goldman, Distinguished Researcher at the University of South Florida. The members were selected by Dr. Enoch Gordis, former NIAAA Director, and Reverend Malloy.

In addition to the expertise of the Task Force Members, the group has heard presentations on the activities of outside groups which also focus on college drinking. These groups included, Mothers Against Drunk Diving, The Higher Education Center, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, other Federal Agencies (such as Department of Education, National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration, and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration), the Inter-Association Task Force, and the Century Council.

Goals

The goals of the Task Force are threefold:

  1. Provide research-based information about the nature and extent of dangerous drinking to high school and college administrators, students, parents, community leaders, policymakers, researchers, and members of the retail beverage industry;
  2. Offer recommendations to college and university presidents on the potential effectiveness of current strategies to reverse the culture of drinking on campus; and
  3. Offer recommendations to the research community, including NIAAA, for future research on preventing hazardous college student drinking.

Unique Characteristics About the Task Force

Composition: The Task Force was the first to include both presidents and researchers, two important groups that rarely have an opportunity to engage in a meaningful dialogue and to share perspectives. This effort represents the first attempt of these two groups to jointly plan for the EVALUATION of current campus policies and interventions

Length of the Project: This 3-year project created an opportunity for a long-term analysis of the complex college drinking problem, resulting in a comprehensive, science-based report.

Research Focus: From its inception, the Task Force has focused on research results on college drinking, and not anecdotal evidence. All deliberations have reflected this overriding goal of maintaining the highest research standards and scientific credibility.

Task Force Products

Description of Panels

The Task Force on College Drinking will be divided into the following panels:

  1. Contexts and Consequences:
    • Descriptive in nature, this panel offered an in-depth view of the current contexts and consequences of drinking among college students.
    • The goal of this panel was to provide a thorough summary of what we currently know about the nature and extent of drinking by college students, to integrate information about student drinking from various sources for increased usability by college administrators, and to identify gaps in existing knowledge about this problem.
    • This panel commissioned papers which reviewed the relevant literature on topics including: (1) the nature and extent of student alcohol consumption and its consequences, (2) the relationship of personal, institutional and developmental factors and student drinking and (3) the administrative complexities of formulating, establishing and carrying out appropriate alcohol policies on campus.
    • This panel also reported on information from relevant survey research (e.g., the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, the College Alcohol Survey, Monitoring the Future and CORE).
  2. Prevention and Treatment:
    • Evaluative in nature, this panel focused on the quality of research and interventions currently being used, how they are (or are not) evaluated, and what outcomes are actually achieved.
    • The goal was to identify a number of interventions which appear to be successful, then determine whether they are evaluated rigorously; to explore the areas not currently addressed and identify questions which still need to be answered; and what variables that still need to be identified.
    • The value of this panel was that researchers will provide perspective on the quality of the methodology that has been used to date. This panel will help determine whether the research is of value and, as a result, what claims can be made responsibly.
    • Each panel will report back to the subcommittee and a final report to the NIAAA Advisory Council will be made.

Task Force Members and Participants

College and University Presidents

Tomas A. Arciniega, Ph.D., former President, California State University at Bakersfield

Robert L. Carothers, Ph.D., President, University of Rhode Island

John T. Casteen III, Ph.D. (Co-Chair: Panel on Contexts and Consequences), President, University of Virginia

Edward T. Foote II, LL.B., former President Emeritus and former Chancellor and former President, University of Miami

Michael Hooker, Ph.D. (deceased), former Chancellor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

William L. Jenkins, D.V.M., Ph.D., President, Louisiana State University System

William E. Kirwan, Ph.D., former President, Ohio State University

James E. Lyons, Sr., Ph.D., President, California State University, Dominguez Hills

Reverend Edward A. Malloy, C.S.C. (Task Force Co-Chair), President, University of Notre Dame

Susan Resneck Pierce, Ph.D., former President, University of Puget Sound

Judith Ramaley, Ph.D. (Co-Chair: Panel on Prevention and Treatment), Former President, University of Vermont

Special thanks to other participating College Presidents

Marilou Eldred, Ph.D., former President, Saint Mary's College

Thomas K. Hearn, Jr., Ph.D., President, Wake Forest University

Shirley H. Showalter, Ph.D., former President, Goshen College

James J. Stukel, Ph.D., President, University of Illinois

Researchers

Marilyn Aguirre-Molina, Ed.D., The Joseph L. Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University

Michael Fleming, M.D., Department of Family Medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Mark S. Goldman, Ph.D. (Task Force Co-Chair), Distinguished Research Professor, Department of Psychology, University of South Florida

Ralph Hingson, Sc.D. (Co-Chair: Panel on Prevention and Treatment), Professor and Associate Dean for Research, Boston University School of Public Health

Harold D. Holder, Ph.D., Director and Senior Scientist, Prevention Research Center, Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation

Donald S. Kenkel, Ph.D., Office of Policy Analysis and Management, Cornell University

G. Alan Marlatt, Ph.D., Professor and Director, Addictive Behaviors Research Center, University of Washington

Marcus A. Rothschild, M.D., Consultant, Veterans Administration Medical Center

Kenneth J. Sher, Ph.D., Curators' Professor, Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri-Columbia

Henry Wechsler, Ph.D., Lecturer and Director of College Alcohol Studies, Department of Health and Social Behavior, Harvard School of Public Health

Sharon C. Wilsnack, Ph.D. (Co-Chair: Panel on Contexts and Consequences), Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor, Department of Neuroscience, University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences

Robert A. Zucker, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, Director, Division of Substance Abuse, Department of Psychiatry, Director, Alcohol Research Center, University of Michigan

Task Force Panel Members

David Anderson, Ph.D., Director, Center for the Advancement of Public Health, George Mason University

William DeJong, Ph.D., Director, The Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention, Education Development Center, Inc.

Ellen R. Gold, Ph.D., Director, University Health Services, Eastern Michigan University

Patrick Johnson, Ph.D., Fellow, Division of Health Treatment and Analysis, The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University

Robert F. Saltz, Ph.D., Prevention Research Center, Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation

Students

Christopher Barr, Walter Johnson High School

Kate Christenberry, Georgetown Day School

Brant Woodrow Grimes, University of North Dakota

Annie Harkins, Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart

Michaela Keegan, University of Rhode Island

Stacie Lambert, Louisiana State University

Chris Linder, University of Nebraska

Lindsey Bronwyn Mercer, University of California at Berkeley

David Odell, University of Puget Sound

Patrick Henry Sweet III, University of Virginia

Joan Wehner Masters, University of Missouri-Columbia

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism

Gayle Boyd, Ph.D. (Coordinator: Panel on Prevention and Treatment)

Fred J. Donodeo, M.P.A. (Task Force Coordinator)

Vivian B. Faden, Ph.D. (Coordinator: Panel on Contexts and Consequences)

Stephen W. Long (Task Force Director)

Contributors

Elaine Arkin (Health Consultant)

Amy Bielski (ORC Macro)

Anton Bizzell (NIAAA)

Greg Bloss (NIAAA)

John Bowersox (NIAAA)

Gayle Boyd (NIAAA)

Ann Bradley (NIAAA)

Susan Cahill (NIAAA)

Nancy Colladay (NIAAA)

Tim Crilley (NIAAA)

William DeJong (Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention)

Mary Lou Dogoloff (Logicon/ROW Sciences)

Fred Donodeo (NIAAA)

Peggy Eastman (Author and Journalist)

Vivian B. Faden (NIAAA)

Mark Goldman (University of South Florida)

Kathryn Grady (NIAAA)

Kelly Green Kahn (NIAAA)

Ralph Hingson (Boston University)

Harold Holder (PIRE)

Bob Huebner (NIAAA)

Geoffrey Laredo (NIAAA)

Stephen Long (NIAAA)

Joy Mara (Joy R. Mara Communications)

Alan Marlatt (University of Washington)

Amy Matush (NIAAA)

Suzanne Medgyesi-Mitschang (NIAAA)

Diane Miller (NIAAA)

Peggy Murray (NIAAA)

Diana O'Donovan (NIAAA)

Lisa Patton (Logicon/ROW Sciences)

Joan Romaine (NIAAA)

Robert F. Saltz (Prevention Research Center)

Tammy (Terrill) Shea (Porter Novelli)

Kenneth J. Sher (University of Missouri)

Linda Spear (Binghamton University)

Aaron White (Duke University)

Roberta Wilhelm (NIAAA)

Sharon Wilsnack (University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences)

Robert A. Zucker (University of Michigan)

Last reviewed: 9/23/2005


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