Binge drinking is the target of a new media campaign to be developed over the next three years by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), Cornell University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC).

The collaboration, supported by a $570,000 grant from the Ithaca-based Park Foundation, is a first-of-its-kind research and advocacy communications project to reduce binge drinking among college students and improve the quality of life on college campuses, CSPI said in making the announcement today (Nov. 20, 1997). The pilot project aims to develop a model communications package of print and radio ads that can be used to combat binge drinking at traditional four-year colleges across the nation.

Working closely with students, faculty, administration, fraternities and sororities, and members of the Ithaca and Chapel Hill communities, the project will focus on changing student cultures that today encourage and tolerate irresponsible alcohol consumption. The campaign will seek to inspire fundamental changes in the campus drinking environment and in students' attitudes toward quality-of-life issues.

"We are pleased to initiate this project with CSPI and UNC," Cornell President Hunter Rawlings said. "We aim to change a student culture that supports heavy and dangerous alcohol consumption. We know the task is ambitious and that we cannot expect to achieve 100 percent success; but there is no better time than now to expand our current efforts, build on the progress we have made and test a model program for the nation."

Stephen R. Rockwell, student-elected trustee at Cornell, agreed: "Colleges must re-examine the messages they send students about drinking. Alcohol has become a central focus of the social life on campuses across the nation and here at Cornell. The CSPI project has a high likelihood of succeeding because of its plan to include students, faculty, administration and professionals."

The goal of the project is to develop a prevention program that will focus on the campus drinking environment, rather than on individual behavior, as do most current anti-drinking efforts. Media campaigns and simultaneous student advocacy activities will build new standards of group responsibility that reject dangerous excessive use of alcohol and enhance positive lifestyle choices.

"This project acknowledges that personal choices about the use of alcohol are made in the context of relationships with others," said Janet Corson-Rikert, director of Cornell Health Services. "Group norms, community traditions and cultural beliefs all influence our particular choices. Our decisions are shaped by a myriad of interpersonal and environmental influences. Alcohol is a community, as well as an individual, concern."

A student advisory committee will be essential in defining the form of this campus initiative, Corson-Rikert emphasized, and will work with staff and faculty in each stage of the project.

CSPI will serve as manager of the project, which will begin Dec. 1. Each campus has a task force that helped plan the project. Task force members at Cornell are Susan Murphy, vice president for student and academic services; Philip Meilman, director of counseling and psychological services at Gannett Health Center; Janis Talbot, director of health education; Catherine Holmes, associate dean of students/director of student activities; Barbara Krause, judicial administrator; Don King, associate director of campus life for community development; Randy Stevens, associate dean of students/director of fraternity and sorority affairs; and Peggy Haine, associate director of communication strategies. Health Education will direct the Cornell piece of the project.

The first phase, which will last through February 1998, will include collecting data at Cornell and UNC about student drinking practices, incidence of alcohol problems, alcohol policies and their enforcement, and wellness initiatives.

Phase Two, from February through April 1998, will include the first of three surveys of students at Cornell and UNC to look at student attitudes about drinking and the quality of campus life.

During Phase Three, from April 1998 through October 2000, CSPI will work with advertising and creative firms to design a media strategy to guide the campaign, which will be highly visible and student-focused. The goal is to create a "buzz" around the campuses through heavy advertising in campus publications and local media. The media campaign will be coordinated with ongoing student advocacy efforts and the development of campus strategies to influence student drinking behavior. Students will be surveyed about the campaign's effectiveness during this period.

Evaluation of the campaign will take place during Phase Four from October 2000 through January 2001. A final survey of students, faculty and administrators will be conducted to assess the campaign's effectiveness.

The project will conclude with the development of a campaign kit to help other campuses replicate the program.

The collaborative effort is, in part, a response to widespread, serious alcohol problems on college campuses throughout the country, CSPI said. A 1996 nationwide survey of 89,874 students on 171 college campuses by the Core Institute at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale revealed that 42 percent of students reported "binge drinking" (five or more drinks in a row) during the past two weeks. Approximately half of all male students and one-third of female students reported binging on alcohol. Cornell's Meilman and Cheryl Presley at Carbondale led that study, in which 28 percent of students reported binge drinking more than once in the previous two weeks, and almost 6 percent reported more than five binge-drinking episodes during that time span.

Core Survey researchers have documented that almost 60 percent of students reported hangovers, 47 pecent reported nausea and vomiting, and 32 percent reported driving under the influence (no arrest).

Based in Washington, D.C., CSPI is a nonprofit health-advocacy organization that focuses on nutrition, food safety and alcohol problems. Supported by foundation grants and the one million subscribers to its Nutrition Action Healthletter, it does not accept industry or government funding.

The Park Foundation is named for the late Roy H. Park, who had long-standing affiliations with both Cornell and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Park Foundation currently is providing substantial support for graduate fellowships at Cornell's Graduate School of Management and at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Chapel Hill, and also has awarded grants to a number of other academic programs at the two institutions.