UI lays out plan to reduce harmful drinking

University of Iowa officials want to reduce from 70 percent to 55 percent the number of students who engage in recent high-risk drinking, under a plan unveiled by UI officials today.

The Alcohol Harm Reduction Plan for 2010 to 2013, to be presented at this afternoon's UI Faculty Senate meeting, also calls for a reduction in the average drinks for UI students per occasion, from 7.43 to 4, and a reduction in the percent of students drinking 10 or more days per month, from 34 percent to 20 percent.

The drinking statistics used by the UI come from the National College Health Assessment, the most widely used health-related survey about health risks with college students. The survey shows that over the past decade, there is substantive evidence that UI students drink more heavily leading to more negative consequences than other college students nationally, UI officials said in the report.

The Alcohol Harm Reduction Committee, a 26-member group that includes seven students, spent months working on the plan.

The plan's four goals are: attract more low-risk drinkers/abstainers and fewer high-risk drinkers to the UI; have more students remain low-risk drinkers/abstainers at the UI; have more high-risk drinkers lower their drinking while at the UI; and hold more high-risk drinkers accountable for upholding expectations.

Some steps to encourage those goals include more activities at the new Campus Recreation and Wellness Center, expand the AlcoholEdu program to all incoming students under 21, expand living-learning communities, implement parent interventions and increase the number of students in Friday classes.

The plan also calls for house party education, a media campaign on saving friends from toxic drinking and a probation supervision program. Holding more high-risk drinkers accountable will happen though possible expansion of the Code of Student Life. This year, the Code of Student Life was expanded beyond campus to include off-campus infractions involving alcohol, drugs and violence.

The UI Alcohol Harm Reduction Plan for 2010 to 2013 calls for creating a senior UI position to lead the initiatives.

According to the UI report, 70 percent of UI students engaged in high-risk drinking in the past two weeks, compared to 33 percent of college students nationally. UI students also are one and a half to two times more likely to experience negative consequences such as blackouts or arrests when compared to college students nationally, according to UI officials.