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:
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;
Offer recommendations to college and university presidents on the potential effectiveness of current strategies to reverse the culture of drinking on campus; and
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.
The Task Force on College Drinking will be divided into the following panels:
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).
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)