MSU earns national award for challenging the environment of high-risk drinking

Contact: Dennis Martell, Olin Health Center: (517) 432-1031, martell1@msu.edu; Sandi Smith, Health and Risk Communication Center: (517) 353-3715, smiths@msu.edu; or Tom Oswald, University Relations: (517) 432-0920, oswald@msu.edu

July 27, 2007

EAST LANSING, Mich. — A team of health educators, faculty and staff at Michigan State University received a grant from the U.S. Department of Education for its highly successful efforts to not only reduce the amount of alcohol use on campus, but to change what many consider a “culture” of alcohol use and abuse.

The $175,000 grant will be used to enhance existing activities and help disseminate information on the MSU Social Norms Project to other colleges and universities. The MSU team is led by Dennis Martell of Olin Health Center and Sandi Smith and Charles Atkin of the Department of Communication.

“To be recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as a model program because we had a measurable impact on the health of our students, is very satisfying,” said Martell, Olin’s director of health education. “This is really a community-wide recognition and a testament to the dedication and commitment of the university and the city of East Lansing to work collaboratively to change the culture of high-risk drinking at MSU.”

Martell said what is most satisfying to him is that over the last few years there has been a constant decline in alcohol use and, more importantly, a decline in the number of students reporting academic harm from alcohol use.

“It’s gone down from about 12.9 percent in 2000 to 9.4 percent in 2006,” he said.

The grant team uses a “social norms approach” to reduce alcohol abuse and associated health consequences.

Surveys of students conducted each semester by MSU’s Institute for Public Policy and Social Research, under the leadership of Larry Hembroff and Karen Clark, determine how students actually use alcohol and how they perceive the ways in which other students use alcohol.

Any misperceptions between what students perceive other students do and think about alcohol, and what students actually do and think about alcohol are then identified and corrected through social marketing and other strategies aimed at correcting those misperceptions.

“We take information the students report to us about how they perceive alcohol use and what they do with alcohol,” Smith said. “Early in our project, there were significant misperceptions between what students thought were the norms and what the actual norms are for this campus. Now, in year five of the project, we’ve seen a significant reduction in the misperceptions around alcohol use, as well as a decrease in actual alcohol consumption and associated harm.”

According to Martell, this is what you would expect to see when using social norms theory to guide prevention efforts.

By correcting the misperceptions through the media, posters, table tents, flyers, classroom infusion and presentations, students are learning that it is okay to follow their own “wise” internal cues and guidance about alcohol use and in doing so, not only will their peers and friends respect their decisions, they’ll likely be making similar ones.

“I do know that the perception of alcohol use has changed among students,” Martell said. “Behaviors have changed, protective behaviors are up and harm has decreased.”

The Department of Education grant, the only one of its kind awarded this year, will be used for creation of a Web site, development and presentations of Webinars – live conferences or workshops on the Internet – and other enhancements of the program.

“In addition,” Martell said, “we will be traveling across the country doing conferences, consulting and sharing what we have learned.”

“This gives us the chance to put together what we’ve been doing for the last five years and get it out to the community so it’s available to everyone,” said Olin health educator Rebecca Allen. “This will be of value not only to just other universities, but to this university and the community at large.”

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