Views From the Field

As college landscapes change, student behavior seems to remain a constant. Sure, they find new techniques and new, creative ways to commit violations, but generally speaking, it’s all the same.

College health professionals have worked hard to decrease traditional tobacco use on campuses by implementing policy and providing education and programming aimed at prevention. 

There is a high cost for not implementing best practices in drug abuse prevention for students, campuses, and the larger community.

For practitioners working on alcohol and other drug prevention in higher education, it is important for us to engage with our communities of focus to create buy-in, understand needs, and implement strategies that will have a higher likelihood of success. 

My DA’s office covers a territory in western Massachusetts that includes a large public university, four private colleges, and a well-regarded community college.

On January 1, 2014, it became legal in Colorado and Washington State for adults 21 and over to buy marijuana for non-medical use in communities that chose to implement the new law. 

In 1986, the shocking death of the greatest basketball player who never played professional basketball, Leonard “Len” Bias, shocked the nation.

More than ever before, preventionists on college campuses are called to attend to the needs of a wide range of students, including those from underrepresented or historically marginalized groups.

As a 21-year-old junior in college, I was deployed to Iraq. That call came right in the middle of the first semester. I went from being a college student sitting in classrooms to patrolling the streets of Iraq

Not that long ago, the nation’s campus-based prevention professionals were loosely organized in part by the U.S. Department of Education and its funded Higher Education Center for Alcohol, Other Drug Abuse, and Violence Prevention (HEC), through an entity called The Network Addressing Collegiate Alcohol and Other Drug Issues (The Network).