The social opportunities for freshmen on campus are limited because of the ‘list’ policy that fraternities have to follow. Many freshmen who are shut out of parties resort to drinking in their dorm rooms, hoping not to be caught by a resident advisor. Shawna Gilligan was not so lucky after her RA found her and her Lawrinson Hall floormates drinking.

‘We had stupidly left our door open, and someone was walking in the hall with a beer and saw an RA walking that direction and put the beer in our doorway,’ said Gilligan, who is now a sophomore. ‘Then the RA walked in and took our ID numbers.’

Gilligan, a nutrition major, was asked by her residence director to participate in Syracuse University’s Substance Use Risk Education, or the SURE Project, as part of her punishment for the first-time offense.

The SURE Project is an intervention investigation designed to find out what types of interventions encourage students to stop taking part in destructive behavior after their first offense. Students are asked to take part in either an individualized counseling session or a computer-based session.

The head investigator of the program, Dr. Kate Carey, explained that this research is being conducted in association with Student Affairs. The program is not the first of its kind, but is actually just part of a series of studies that is ongoing with Student Affairs. Some research has already been completed and published, while more still being conducted.

‘This is not a one-shot investigation,’ Carey said. ‘We want to find out what is a meaningful and effective program, what kind of alcohol education is going to engage students in healthy choices.’

As a participant in SURE, Gilligan was asked to take part in a 30-minute, anonymous survey about drinking habits for herself, her friends and other college students, as well as her feelings on drinking and what emotional effects it had had on her. When she finished, she received a Starbucks gift certificate in appreciation for her participation in the survey. Then she was assigned another task as part of her punishment.

‘The SURE Project surveys kind of try to make you think that your drinking habits may be a little out of hand,’ Gilligan said.

For her extra task, Gilligan had to take an AlcoholEdu online session, slightly different from the one that students are required to take before they come in as freshmen. Some students are asked to participate in different computer sessions and some meet with a counselor for an individualized session.

As far as the initiative not to drink, Gilligan thinks the SURE Project may have the opposite effect on first-time offenders.

‘I think the SURE program would encourage students to get caught the first time in a sense because of the gift certificate perk as well as the option to come back at a six-month visit as well as a 12-month visit and be paid both times to complete the original survey,’ Gilligan said.

These follow-up surveys are conducted to gauge what kind of effect the program had on a student’s behavior and attitudes during a six-month and a 12-month interval.

Gilligan said her drinking habits were not changed by the SURE Project and that personal growth was what really effected her decisions concerning alcohol.

‘I just kept on doing the same thing I did all year,’ Gilligan said. ‘I think it’s just more of a maturity factor that I chose not to drink as much. It may help some students who don’t realize how out of hand their habits might be. But for me personally, it didn’t.’

Carey says this research is the only way to find out if this or other programs will be effective with students.

‘There are a lot of options out there,’ Carey said. ‘We are trying to keep an open mind about effective intervention and what will work. We will go where the data we collect points us. This will help us make clear recommendations to Syracuse University, as well as other colleges, as to the most meaningful and effective interventions and sanctions.’

Published on November 28, 2006 at 12:00 pm