The Office of the National Drug Council Policy notes that college student drinking is still responsible for:

• over 1,700 deaths annually
• over 600,000 assaults and almost as many unintentional injuries
• nearly 100,000 sexual assaults

Educators need to make students aware of the harm that can be caused by underage drinking, high-risk drinking, and drug use. There are approximately 20 million students currently attending colleges throughout the United States. The Safer California Universities Project focuses on the total environment of heavy drinking prevention, rather than on individuals. Eighteen hundred deaths are attributed to heavy drinking among college students, as well as 97,000 victims of sexual assault.

The study, led by Dr. Robert Saltz of PIRE, included eight of the University of California’s campuses, as well as six campuses within the California State University system. Half of the schools were assigned to the Safer intervention program.

Included in the 'Safer' interventions were nuisance party enforcement operations, minor decoy operations, DUI checkpoints, social host ordinances, and use of campus and local media to increase the visibility of environmental strategies.

The study showed that Safer intervention universities had a large reduction in the probability of intoxication at off-campus parties. It also showed that Safer universities’ students were 6% less likely to drink to intoxication during the last time they were at any of the targeted settings. Stronger interventions were also achieved at Safer universities.

Visit Safer California Universities Project to learn more.