Revised alcohol policy helps UNC students struggling with drinking problems

 

Dailytarhell.com

By Jamie Gwaltney

August 25, 2016

Under a new university policy, Tar Heels struggling with unhealthy drinking habits have a much clearer path to help.

 

The new alcohol policy establishes a public health-focused approach for any student, staff or faculty member who, in the past, could have faced disciplinary action for alcohol-related offenses.

 

The policy lays out consistent and clear methods for treatment and help, while also explaining and de-emphasizing the disciplinary process.

 

The policy, effective Aug. 1, aims to change the drinking culture in Chapel Hill’s alcohol-dense area, encouraging students and faculty to seek help without fear of consequence.

 

Jonathan Sauls, dean of students, said the policy has new aspects, but is also a collection of established policies.

 

“We wanted to adopt a comprehensive alcohol policy that applied to the entire campus,” Sauls said. “That was rooted in the best elements of public health.”

 

The policy aims to create a streamlined source for all alcohol policy, Sauls said, such as medical amnesty and the Safe Harbor clause.

 

The concept of medical amnesty removes the threat of punishment and puts greater emphasis on getting students medical attention when facing alcohol-related risks or substance abuse.

 

The Safe Harbor clause, Sauls said, protects students from disciplinary action stemming from information revealed about a crime or assault in the process of seeking help for substance abuse or alcohol-related problems.

 

“We recognize that the old policy, which hadn’t been updated since probably the mid-to-late ’90s in major substantive ways, was really rooted in a classic enforcement approach,” Sauls said.

 

Sauls said when designing the policy, the working group did not want to focus on enforcement and discipline, but instead on encouraging students and faculty to come forward about needing help.

 

“(The new policy) is a lot more direct. Hopefully it is a lot more accessible,” Sauls said. “We’re not going to policy our way out of an alcohol problem.”

 

He said the group’s main focuses in crafting the policy was educating students about the dangers of high-risk drinking and preventing future incidents.

 

“It is an incredibly courageous thing to do,” Sauls said. “To ask for help.”

 

Sauls said the alcohol policy also lays out treatment options for students, including therapy, leave from school, strategies to overcome addiction and alternate housing to support sobriety. Funding for programs can come from insurance, scholarships and gift funds.

 

The policy also established the Campus Alcohol Task Force. Dean Blackburn, associate dean of students and director of Student Wellness, said the task force plans to measure the impact and effectiveness of the policy in an effort to reduce high-risk drinking habits. Blackburn said they will survey students anonymously to understand the alcohol and drug perception on campus.

 

“In an ideal scenario, we are going to prevent situations from occurring that will lead to a public safety ticket or RA incident report, those sort of things,” Blackburn said.

 

However, Sauls said he does not want students to have the impression they can’t get in trouble, because they can still suffer consequences as serious as expulsion.

 

“At some point, part of this public health approach is recognizing that many of us, whether you drink or not drink, are being impacted by the choices that others are making,” Sauls said.

 

Sauls said collaborating with the town of Chapel Hill is also a part of the alcohol policy. Policymakers brought community members like Elinor Landess, campus and community coalition director of the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership, into the discussion.

 

“Along with the alcohol policy, there was a number of things that the coalition recommended be embedded in that policy,” Landess said. “Things about off campus parties, things about streamlining existing policies related to drinking both on and off campus.”

 

Landess said the Chapel Hill Police Department trains local businesses to distinguish fake IDs. Police officers are also invited to residence halls to speak with students about the dangers of high-risk drinking.

 

Taylor Bates, president of the Residence Hall Association, said it is important to educate residence hall members on the policy. He said they teach residents how to identify signs of alcohol poisoning and how to get help if needed. Bates said they work to educate staff in residence halls on the policy so they can incorporate it into their programs.

 

“We find that there’s a lot of commonly held misconceptions about the alcohol policy at this university, specifically pertaining to what is medical amnesty,”

 

Bates said. Bates said RHA also hosts alternative late night events to reduce drinking and create a substance free community on campus, working in tandem the new alcohol policy.

 

“Kind of an underrepresented group that does exist on our campus are students who already come into this university recovering from some sort of prior alcohol addiction and they find themselves … once again subject to this environment where alcohol is easily accessible and peer pressure exists,” Bates said.