Mini-grants worth up to $1,000 are available for Cornell student groups, faculty and staff members to develop prevention-education programs addressing violence and substance abuse on campus. The mini-grants are part of a federal grant, known as Project Challenge, that was awarded in September.

Administered by the university's Gannett Health Center and supported in part by the U.S. Department of Education's Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), the mini-grants will be awarded for programs showing potential to change campus social and cultural norms by reducing all forms of violence and drug abuse.

The deadline for the first round of 1997 grant applications under Project Challenge is Feb. 14. More information is available from Jan Talbot in the Health Education Office at (607) 255-4782.

Project Challenge is a set of four initiatives to reduce drug abuse and violence on campus. Notification of the grant award for $64,919 came last September. FIPSE funds will cover 89 percent of the total cost of the project -- with 11 percent or $7,853 of support contributed by the university.

In addition to the awarding of mini-grants, the project includes violence-prevention training for students, faculty and staff members; financial support for the student organization known as SMASH (Students Making Alcohol Substitutes Happen); and evaluation through survey research.

"The mini-grant fund will provide students, faculty and staff with financial support to develop and implement educational, artistic, social or entertainment programming to prevent violence and substance abuse," said the Project Challenge administrator, Susan Murphy, the university's vice president for student and academic services. "This is a chance to be creative in approaching a serious problem."

Explaining the need for prevention-education, Project Challenge Coordinator John Gormley said: "Although overall violent-crime rates have dipped to record lows nationally, rates of violent crime by and against young people remain high. The need for prevention programming continues and intensifies as our world and university climates become more complex," said Gormley, a health educator at the Gannett center. "Prevention education should be an essential component of any comprehensive learning process."

A 1994 survey at Cornell found 32 percent of undergraduate students reporting some form of alcohol-related public misconduct, such as trouble with the police, fighting or arguments, driving while intoxicated or taking sexual advantage of another person. The same study revealed that 38 percent of male students who were surveyed and 25 percent of females had engaged in binge drinking in the previous two weeks.

"We now believe that education efforts that focus on behavior alone are not enough," Gormley said. "Risk-reduction programs also need to address the social and cultural context in which the behavior occurs. Prevention programs should assist students in developing skills such as communication, stress management, anger management and conflict resolution, as well as help them challenge and change existing social norms to build healthier communities."

Gormley is chair of the grant's violence prevention training group, which is composed of representatives from Community Development, Fraternity and Sorority Affairs, the Department of Athletics, as well as several community representatives. Training modules will be developed for use with resident advisors, fraternity and sorority leaders, coaches and athletic team leaders, and interested faculty and staff members. The modules will address the roots of violence and offer participants skill training in the resolution of potential and actual conflict.

Janis Talbot, director of health education, chairs the group that will be reviewing and awarding the mini-grants; Nanci Rose, health educator, is chair of a group that will work to support SMASH; and Philip Meilman, director of counseling and psychological services, will chair the evaluation group.

Project Challenge initiatives are aimed at promoting the safety and well-being of undergraduate and graduate students at Cornell by positively enhancing social, cultural and learning environments.

"We intend to pilot and institutionalize those strategies and mechanisms that prove effective in reducing the incidences of violence and drug abuse on campus," Gormley said.