UC-SANTA CRUZ SETS SESSION ON ALCOHOL, DRUGS

SANTA CRUZ -- The University of California-Santa Cruz, where a student
died last week in an alcohol-related pool accident, will host a
conference Thursday on alcohol and drug use on college campuses.

``What's the Buzz?'' is scheduled from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the
university's Porter College and will cover student experiences and
abuse prevention strategies.

The keynote speaker will be Michael Haines, coordinator for health
enhancement services at Northern Illinois University. He has been
recognized for a successful program that shows that college students
overestimate the amount of substance abuse among their peers. The
approach reduced substance abuse 7 percent in one year at the
University of Arizona in Tucson.

UC-Santa Cruz officials say nearly 63 percent of their students report
they do not engage in binge-drinking (five or more drinks in a
sitting), and fewer than half said they smoked marijuana in the past
year.