Commission looks to find more results on alcohol usage

In previous years, incoming students attending an orientation program throughout the summer merely viewed a video about alcohol and drug prevention. Starting in June, freshmen will see the results of a five-year effort by IU officials, which includes vignettes presented during orientation programs and information distributed in registration packets. \nStill, students remain skeptical.\n"I don't think that there is anything the University can do to curb alcohol use on campus," senior Adam Bowen said. "It is too indoctrinated into the college atmosphere."\nOne group hopes to prove Bowen wrong. \nThe Campus and Community Commission on Alcohol has worked diligently since its formation in 1997 to reform IU's substance abuse policies on the Bloomington campus. The group has spent the past five years working within the university process to refine its proposals. But the commission is now fully focused on implementation.\n"It is one thing to come up with a wish list of ideas. It is entirely another thing to actually do it," said Dee Owens, director of the commission and IU's Alcohol and Drug Information Center.\nStudents, faculty and various community members comprise the group commissioned by former Bloomington Chancellor Kenneth R. R. Gros Louis. He formed the group on the recommendation of a national panel that recognized the need for increased cooperation between American college campuses and their surrounding communities when dealing with drug and alcohol issues.\nThe American Medical Association (AMA) in conjunction with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation currently funds 10 similar programs around the nation. The AMA does not fund IU's program; however, all share the same goal -- to identify and change the larger environmental factors influencing students' decisions. \nOwens embraces this philosophy wholeheartedly. When she was hired for the position in August 2000, she immediately joined various community groups making a commitment to be involved beyond the IU campus. \n"In order to understand how we should operate, we need to know how they operate," Owens said.\nNow the commission must work to turn its proposals into policies. \nSome of the recommendations proposed by the Bloomington coalition include required on-campus housing for freshmen, support of keg registration legislation, inclusion of alcohol information in orientation packets, and expansion of the BACCHUS bus beyond Little 500 weekend.\nThe group's efforts have been successful in many of these areas already. The university has already committed to initiating required freshman housing, which will take effect in the 2003-2004 school year. \n This past school year, the university also contracted a bus from Bloomington Shuttle to pick up students from area bars Thursday-Saturday, 10 p.m.-3 a.m. \n Owens sent a letter to the Indiana Legislature on behalf of IU in support of keg registration legislation. The governor signed the bill into law earlier this year.\nDespite these strides, the group has experienced its share of setbacks.\n"We have had a difficult time getting students involved in the process," said Sarah Fischer, a community member who's been involved since the commission's inception.\nTo become a member of the Campus and Community Commission on Alcohol, students must apply through the Dean of Students' office. Appointments are made based on applications, and all students are urged to apply. But Fischer understands from this point, it's up to the students.\n"We will get nowhere without student involvement"