AWARDING ABUSE RESEARCH

Grant Gives Needed Opportunity To Voice Opinions

The School of Industrial and Labor Relations' R. Brinkley Smithers
Institute for Alcohol-Related Workplace Studies' will present the newly
created Harrison M. Trice Award to the student authors of a research
project focused on campus opinions about alcohol and drugs. The Institute
seeks to highlight the important issue of substance abuse, a topic which
students and faculty urgently need to discuss openly.

The Trice award will grant $1,000 to the undergraduate student or students
who compose the year's best research project concerning the use and/or
abuse of alcohol and drugs in a college environment.

Unlike some of the past programs Gannett: Cornell University Health
Services has employed to call attention to the prevalence of drugs and
drinking, most of which focus on the after-effects of usage, the Trice
award may be able to look deeper and bring about a better understanding of
how and why the Cornell environment promotes these behaviors.

On the surface, Cornell students seem to cherish their ability to consume
alcohol (naturally, drug use is less obvious to those surveying the college
climate).

Last semester, 21 people were arrested during an Ithaca Police crack-down
on unruly behavior by college students. The reasons for arrest included
possession of an open container of alcohol and possession of marijuana. At
the time, both City officials and the University clearly announced that
while they understood the motivations behind "party behavior," both
institutions would seek to lower the degree of alcohol and drug consumption
on campus through police presence and intervention procedures.

However, on a campus where students are currently working to keep drinking
a part of Slope Day, the annual celebration of the last day of classes,
more needs to be discovered about the connection between the use of alcohol
and drugs and some students' conception that these behaviors are harmless.

Most of the interventions the University have utilized to combat this issue
focus only on the situations surrounding drinking and drugs, or present
impersonal facts about the rates of drinking on campus. The latest
initiative, the University Medical Amnesty Protocol is another example of
this type of program that responds to rather than prevents life-threatening
situations. In an effort to facilitate prompt medical attention, the
Protocol grants immunity from Judicial Administrator prosecution to both
the victim of alcohol poisoning and the student who calls for medical
assistance.

While these types of programs have the potential to save more lives, they
do nothing to discourage students from entering these dangerous situations
in the first place or uncover why students involve themselves in these
risky behaviors.

The University needs to take the opportunity the Trice award represents to
give students a chance to research these problems and voice possible
solutions. Campus Life and Gannett posters often state that many students
on campus drink only moderately. Perhaps hearing this message from a
student voice rather than the administration will help convince those
members of the community who do not ascribe to this principle.