Columns:: On a mission

since 12/15/98

Columns::October 8, 2001

UGA responds to governor”s budget-reduction directive
Recipients of Brooks award for excellence announced
Federal, state laws cover university employees called to military service
Four named faculty fellows for scholarship program
New grants will fund two Brazilian projects
Taking the next steps
On the road again
UGA welcomes new faculty
Stretching their skills

Campus News

On a mission

By Beth Roberts
beth@uga.edu

This week is National Collegiate Alcohol Awareness Week. At UGA, such programs are guided by Carole Middlebrooks, coordinator for alcohol and other drug education, through the University Health Center and the Department of Student

Carole Middlebrooks has handled alcohol and drug education at UGA for 15 years. Photo by Peter Frey

Activities. Columns talked to her about problems, programs and services at UGA.

Columns: How much does the college-student population differ from people in the same age group who aren’t in college?

Middlebrooks: College students tend to drink more and experiment more with other drugs than their age group who don’t attend college. They have a lot of extra money-not all of them, but a lot of them. In high school, they were in school for six or seven hours a day, and now they’re only in the classroom for approximately three to four hours a day, so they have an awful lot of time on their hands.
We’ve done a survey of incoming freshmen. It told us that 84 percent have already consumed alcohol and 33 percent of them have already consumed an illegal drug-before ever coming to the university. So they’re an experienced group and, once they get here, the independence and free time mean they can drink more heavily and experiment more.
Fall semester freshmen are the most likely to engage in high-risk behaviors-and that is the most dangerous time, because of the chance of alcohol poisoning and effects that they may not be aware of. Alcohol impairs abstract mental functioning-people who consume enough alcohol to experience a “buzz” can have their abstract mental functioning impaired for three to four days; those who get drunk can impair their abstract mental functioning for 28 to 30 days. So binge drinking-even just on weekends-can affect them academically.

Columns: What approach do you take?

Middlebrooks: First, we speak to them during orientation. We don’t delude ourselves into thinking that that’s going to change their behavior, but at least it begins the process.
And that’s the point-I think of it as giving them an inoculation and then booster shots all the time they’re here. The most powerful effect we can have is when they get consistent periodic messages, over time, that eventually may sink in. So we speak to both parents and students during orientation . Then we speak with RAs [resident assistants] and we do programs in the residence halls.
We do programs in classrooms. I speak to almost all the fraternity new-member classes and a lot of the sorority new-member classes. We do awareness campaigns.
We have a program called On-Campus Talking about Alcohol. Students who get in trouble-with judicial programs, or housing, or the courts downtown-are mandated to attend this class, and they have a test at the end of it. Then they have to come for an individual follow-up session after it’s over, and at that point we talk with them about how this applies to them individually, helping them to identify their own individual risk and to develop a plan to lower their risk for the possibility of any alcohol or other drug health or impairment problem.

Columns: About how many students are involved in the course of a year?

Middlebrooks: It is taught once a month and we typically have a minimum of about 40-the largest class was 88. A lot of open-container violations, urination in public, underage possession-they’re not all really serious offenses. But often I find underlying behavior that is serious. The beauty of the program is that it helps them to understand their own individual risk level, based on family history and biological responses.

Columns: Don’t students also work in prevention?

Middlebrooks: Yes, we have a group of peer educators-ASAP, Advocating Safe Alternatives for Peers. We teach a three-hour credit class to train them.
We do a lot of training. With RAs, we focus on how to handle an emergency situation. If a resident comes in and passes out how do you know whether to send them to a hospital?

Columns: Most people really don’t know how to handle problems like that.

Middlebrooks: No, they don’t. We had a student last fall who had alcohol poisoning. I had just done a program for his organization, just a few weeks before that, about the warnings for alcohol poisoning and for dehydration. They made one bad mistake-when he threw up they threw him in a cold shower and lowered his body temperature to 91 degrees. But then, even though they had all been drinking, they recognized that he was showing signs of alcohol poisoning and so they took him to the hospital. The doctor said he was within 30 minutes of death. Had they not known to recognize the signs of alcohol poisoning, we could have lost him.

Columns: Do faculty call you when they’re worried about a student?

Middlebrooks: Yes. I had a call from a faculty member toward the end of summer semester saying I have a student I’m really worried about and I don’t know how to approach it. I e-mailed him back with some suggestions of how to handle it, and we had a conversation going for several weeks with that particular student.
One professor actually required several of her students to come to see me. I saw some students really turn around because of her intervention. One student really had a serious problem, and that child literally turned her life around. She was pretty angry at that faculty member at first, but afterwards she said to me with tears in her eyes, “I can’t believe that a professor cared that much.” Faculty can be a very important part of interventions.

UGA Today supports QuickTime, Flash, RealPlayer and Acrobat Reader (PDF files).
Download information about these plug-ins.
Affiliate icons for UGA Today

COLUMNS ] UGA Today ] Subscribe ] News Bureau ]
Office of Public Affairs Directory ] Photo Services ]
Broadcast, Video & Photography ] Master Calendar]
Columns ] Georgia Magazine ]Visitors Center ]
UGA Home ] Alumni ] Admissions ] UGA Directories ]
Sports ] Weather ] Search UGA sites ]

Columns is produced by the UGA News Service, a unit of UGA Public Affairs.
Beth Roberts: Columns editor, Juliett Dinkins: Columns managing editor,
Janet Beckley: Columns art director. Peter Frey: Columns photo editor

Questions or comments should be directed to columns@uga.edu