For the next four years, incoming freshmen will be required to
take AlcoholEdu, an online alcohol awareness course, UCLA announced
Wednesday.
As UCLA’s first mandatory alcohol education program,
AlcoholEdu is an online class that surveys students’
knowledge of and experiences with alcohol.
“The program aims to motivate behavior change, undermine
unrealistic expectations about the effects of alcohol … and help
students practice healthier and safer decision-making,” said
Pamela Viele, director of health education at the Ashe Center, in a
press release.
The four-year test run of the program will cost UCLA $26,000,
said Janina Montero, vice chancellor of student affairs. The course
provides information about the effects of alcohol on learning and
memory, and also gives information on how to manage peer pressure,
according to the program’s Web site.
The course is tailored to the student experience in two ways: It
will refer to UCLA programs and departments on campus, and it will
survey students before any information is given so it can tailor
the information to their experiences.
For example, if a student says he does not drink, the class will
focus less on the harmful effects of drinking and lean toward
handling others who drink.
Students will also be able to test out of certain sections of
the class if they are already knowledgeable about alcohol.
While some students can appreciate the program, others say it is
unnecessary for those who do not drink.
“Personally, I don’t drink, so to me (AlcoholEdu)
would be a waste of time and money. I could, however, see the value
of such a program if it were well-developed,” first-year
undeclared student Tiffany Tyson said.
According to a 2002 Ashe Center survey, about 21.9 percent of
UCLA students participate in heavy drinking, defined as five or
more drinks in one sitting in the past two weeks, compared to
national averages, which are in the 40 to 45 percent range.
AlcoholEdu is expected to only marginally decrease the number of
students who drink heavily, Montero said.
Instead of lowering the number of students who drink heavily,
the focus of the program is to provide background information on
the effects of alcohol, as well as to provide the UCLA
administration with aggregate data on student drinking habits and
general knowledge of alcohol, Montero said.
“We are already in a good position because our (heavy
drinking) percentage is half the national average. We want to keep
that achievement and, if anything, improve it,” Montero
said.
Though the administration will have access to the overall data,
data on individual students will be kept confidential, Montero
said.
Once the administration has the AlcoholEdu survey results, other
programs will be developed to increase student alcohol awareness
based on real numbers, not estimates, Montero said.
Montero said AlcoholEdu “has been in the consciousness of
higher education for three or four years now … and over 400
universities are currently participating in the program.”