Who's Driving the Bus?
by Robert J. Chapman, Ph.D.
Have you ever found yourself suddenly aware that you have no recollection
of the last few minutes/miles after having driven on an Interstate for an
extended period? I'm not asking if you are an alcoholic who has emerged
from a blackout while driving. Rather, who among us cannot admit to
entering that "zone" induced by the rhythmic "bump thump, bump-thump" of
tires crossing pavement segments or the constant hum of the tires on the
tarmac or metronome like beat of wiper blades on a rain streaked wind
screen?
While cruising down the Interstate, the "auto pilot" switched on and in
full control, a driver can literally travel miles with absolutely no
awareness of the journey...signs are ignored, exits missed, scenery passes
unnoticed. It's only when called upon to negotiate a particularly
challenging situation or encountering an unexpected road hazard that we are
catapulted back to the present, often with a start that rivals a 100 joules
from the ER doc's paddles. Complete with a white knuckle death grip on the
steering wheel and a flood of adrenaline that renders muscles beyond
rational control, the driver is momentarily little more than a passenger
hurtling through space. Well folks, I write to suggest that higher ed's
AOD professionals may well have entered that "zone" as
we cruse on the information super highway. If so, we best prepare for the
wake-up call that will jolt us back to the present.
If you haven't noticed, there is a battle being waged for control of
prevention strategies regarding alcohol and other drugs on America's
college and university campuses. On one side are those who have hunkered
down with a pessimistic view of collegiate drinking practices that focus
exclusively on "binge drinkers" and "teetotalers." Rather than report the
data that highlight the majority of students who are moderate in the
alcohol consumption - these are mostly the media - they opt for the sexier
headline, "44% of students binge drink." On the other side are those who
view collegians as incapable of making responsible choices on their own.
This camp argues that a solution to the problem of collegiate bingeing must
be legislated. A splinter group of this bunch insists on using old
approaches to affect change in collegiate drinking - values clarification
and "awareness campaigns" - hoping that this time, they will somehow be
effective in shaping student behavior.
As professionals, it is not uncommon to be focused on the media. Let's face
it, many of us are "news junkies." We consume a steady diet of e-reports
and listserv discussions about "collegiate drinking." We consume the 10
o'clock news, 60 Minutes, and the Daily News. We hear the "bump-thump,
bump-thump" that "binge drinking" is the ubiquitous description of 5+/4+
drinks in one outing. We hear the incessant drone of alcohol awareness
theme weeks and we enter "the zone" without ever realizing we're there.
Some of us use the terms - coined by those who study student behaviors but
never seem to have time to listen to what individual students actually say
about the resulting lexicon - without question. We accept the money
proffered by politicians and follow their belief that the quick fix of
informing students to "just say no" is somehow the answer to the nation's
drug problem. We echo the importance of increasing one's understanding of
the risks associated with addiction and believe that this time around,
awareness campaigns alone will result in a reduction in adolescent
experimentation and/or incidents of regular AOD use.
There is a one approach to prevention that has been available to us for
better than a decade. This approach has been tested on numerous campuses
across the country, all with the same positive results. It represents
something we can do that will affect the frequency of AOD use and the
quantity consumed on any given occasion. This promising approach to
prevention has the rather bland moniker of "social norms" campaigns, and
this name, in and of itself, may be a significant part of the problem the
model has had in capturing the attention of the media and community at
large.
Many of us in higher ed have come to appreciate social norms campaigns as a
relatively simple, inexpensive, and highly effective way to impact the
campus drinking culture. This was clearly indicated in the recent
zoomerang.com e-survey I recently conducted on this approach to prevention.
Yet our apparent tolerance if not acceptance of the sexier concept of
collegiate "binge drinking" has all but conceded newspaper headlines and
radio/TV sound bites to those who may study student drinking but have never
worked with the individuals who are responsible for the behavior.
Now I admit, it is only some of us who use these terms, many don't. But too
few of us are actively engaged in protesting the persistent use of archaic
prevention strategies or the employment of misleading and deceptive
terminology. If there is one place where the pursuit of truth and the
veracity of the written word should be scrupulously accurate, that is
higher education. As regards the use of the term "binge drinking," if it is
discovered that the media have perverted the term's intended meaning, that
term should be abandoned. If the population to which the term was intended
to apply has so vociferously rejected it as to make the term a reason to
reject the findings about collegiate drinking, the term needs to be
changed. And if we fail to demand this and insist that the good news also
found in the results of collegiate drinking research should be clearly
reported, then perhaps we have entered "the zone" as we travel down the
information superhighway...bump thump...bump thump...bump thump...
Robert J. Chapman, Ph.D.
Coordinator, AOD Programs
Associate Faculty, Clinical/Counseling Psychology
La Salle University Counseling Center
1900 W. Olney Ave.
Philadelphia, PA 19141-1199
Phone: 215-951-1355 Fax: 215-951-1451
mailto:chapman@lasalle.edu
home page http://www.lasalle.edu/~chapman/home.htm
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