IU receives $330,000 grant to start online alcohol program

After summer orientation, all incoming freshman students will be required to take an online class called AlcoholEdu. \nIU received a $331,076 grant May 22 that will help finance the online class for two years. Dick McKaig, dean of students, said only a portion of the grant is going toward the alcohol education class. \n“The grant funds not only the program but funds a faculty-oriented research program,” McKaig said. \nMcKaig said Ruth Gassman, the executive director of the Indiana Prevention Resource Center, will be heading the faculty that will be doing an evaluation to see whether or not the program is effective in changing abusive alcoholic behavior on campus. \n“There’s no sense in spending money if it’s not making a difference,” McKaig said. “You gotta go with something harder than data. Do a check on issues you can document: blood alcohol content, property damage in residence halls. Check on them before and after, and see if it makes a difference.” \nBrandon Busteed, CEO and founder of AlcoholEdu, explained that after he graduated from Duke University, he became frustrated that alcohol played a big part in social life at school. \n“(Alcohol was) limiting the potential of bright people,” Busteed said. \nBusteed said he wanted to give students the benefit of the doubt, and that’s why he started the online class. \nBusteed explained that IU students will have to log in to access AlcoholEdu. The program will have a series of questions that will personalize the experience for the student, asking them about personal alcohol consumption and awareness. \n“It will be realistic,” Busteed said. “It’s not a program that’s going to change a student in a black or white way.” \nMcKaig explained that students will hear about the program during orientation and will be required to complete it prior to returning to campus for the fall semester. Although the University hasn’t decided what the final punishment for not completing the course will be, McKaig said other universities have barred students from registering for second semester classes until the course is completed.\nIUPD Capt. Jerry Minger explained that it is hard to say whether or not the program will be beneficial because it has never been used at IU. At other universities, it has caused statistics related to alcohol abuse to go down. \n“Educational aspects seem to be beneficial to the incoming population,” Minger said. \nAccording to the reports on the IUPD Web site, in 2006 IU made 391 arrests and 999 disciplinary referrals on campus for public intoxication, illegal consumption and false identification. \n“(AlcoholEdu) will guarantee all incoming freshman have a common, base understanding about alcohol and alcohol terminology, and we can build on that with our programming in the fall,” McKaig said. \nMcKaig said that there have been recent instances of freshmen registering dramatically high on BAC tests, and he hopes to see this decrease.\nBusteed added that AlcoholEdu will have new features, such as a social networking site for students who don’t drink and are not interested in partying. \n“Connecting people who aren’t in the alcohol scene could be a very valuable plan,” McKaig said.