Some freshman are subject to the new procedures even before they get to school. At DePaul University in Chicago, for example, students are required to take an online self-assessment to analyze their alcohol use before they get to campus.
Loyola University Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago also use the online program, called e-CHUG, or electronic Check-Up to Go.
Based on the latest research, the program is designed to motivate students to reduce their consumption using personalized information about their own drinking and risk factors. The program is currently in use on more than 550 campuses worldwide.
Meanwhile, schools are working to offer alcohol-free events, like the Beer Free Zone at UIC, and NU Nights at Northwestern, which offered a showing of the movie “Chicago” with related dance lessons, or bingo with prizes such as iPods.
Harper College in Palatine offers a new class about drug and alcohol abuse in college, taught by a teacher who admits drinking once affected her own performance in school. Some schools even offer alcohol-free spring breaks.
At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, binge drinking has been notorious on dates such as Halloween and Unofficial St. Patrick’s Day, a daylong drunkfest sponsored by bars that were losing money when March 17 fell within spring break. In response, the school and city have tried to crack down on such events, including steps to limit alcohol availability and installing surveillance cameras.
All these efforts are a response to a study by the National Institute on Alcohol and Alcoholism that identified binge drinking as a top problem on campuses across the country a decade ago.
Since then, a survey of 747 college presidents reported by the Center for Science in the Public Interest found that nearly all colleges had implemented some form of alcohol education, with efforts targeting high-risk populations such as first-year students, sorority and fraternity members, and athletes.
Thirty-four percent of colleges banned alcohol for all students, and 4 in 5 colleges offered an option for alcohol-free residences.
Still, success has varied. At some colleges, nearly 70 percent of the students were identified as binge drinkers; at others there were none.
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