ACUHO-I News Blog

“Conversations,” a regular department in the Talking Stick magazine, is dedicated to capturing dialogue between high-level professionals on the topics that affect campus housing. The July+August 2009 issue featured a conversation on student substance abuse that was so thorough and valuable, that it all couldn’t fit on the printed page.

The following is the complete conversation featuring Valerie Randall-Lee (Northeastern University in Boston), Dan Pedersen (St. Cloud University in Minnesota), and Paul Hubinsky (Illlinois Institute of Technology in Chicago). After reading, please share your own thoughts about student substance abuse and the efforts your campus is making to address it in the comment section.

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In a Chronicle of Higher Education essay, Jennifer Lynn Hughes, an associate professor in the psychology department at Agnes Scott College, points out accommodations that can be made for students who have Asperger’s Syndrome. Universities are required, of course, to make “reasonable” accommodations for students with diagnosed and declared disabilities. What qualifies as reasonable is not defined, but most institutions will do their best to help a qualified student succeed if this can be done without disadvantaging other students. Housing professionals are familiar with these issues, of course, as more students with disabilities and mental disorders are able to attend college than in years past. What sorts of accommodations have been requested at your institution? Were you able to fulfill them?

Despite rising awareness and prevention campaigns, alcohol-related deaths, drunk driving, and binge drinking are all on the rise on college campuses, according to a new study by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA).

The findings have been published in a special edition  of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs devoted to college drinking problems. Fourteen studies in the issue report the results of projects funded by the NIAAA’s Rapid Response to College Drinking Problems initiative which, between 2004 and 2005, selected 15 college campuses to help develop programs to combat the problem. These figures show that drinking-related accidental deaths among 18- to 24-year-old students rose from 1,440 in 1998 to 1,825 in 2005. Reported binge drinking went from 42 percent to 45 percent. And students who admitted to drinking and driving increased from 26.5 percent to 29 percent.

Ralph Hingson, Sc.D., M.P.H., is the lead researcher for the project and the director of the NIAAA’s division of epidemiology and prevention research. In a release he expressed his concern over the numbers and pointed out that, “the irony is that during this same time period, our knowledge of what works as far as intervention in this age group has increased. That knowledge isn’t yet being put into place.”

A copy of the report is available as a PDF download here.

A contributor to this problem on many campuses is the so-called “Thirsty Thursdays,” where students begin their weekend celebrations (and associated alcohol consumption) a day early because they have no classes scheduled for Friday.  InsideHigherEd.com last week reported on the study which was based on the responses of 895 undergraduates at the Loyola College in Maryland in fall 2008.

In the report, students who did not have a Friday class reported drinking an average of 3.38 drinks on Thursday nights, roughly four times more than those with a Friday class before 10 a.m. These trends were consistent for all respondents, regardless of gender, class year, or individual propensity to drink.

Inside Higher Ed reports that several campuses have decided to close briefly because of H1N1 (AKA Swine Flu). It’s a campus-by-campus judgement call at this point, and many campuses are operating as usual, despite several suspected H1N1 sicknesses or confirmed cases. The situation is hardly alarming, given a relative smattering of cases among college students, but campus professionals in all areas are staying cautious as spring semester ends and summer conferences and events begin, which will bring people in a wide variety of age ranges and immunities to campuses.

Confirmed, probable, and suspected cases of the H1N1 infection on college campuses continued to make news over the weekend. Higher education institutions — and the associations that serve them — have responded by making a number of resources available to members, staff, and students.

ACUHO-I has collected many of these resources in one place on its Web site. Similar resources are being posted on this blog and the ACUHO-I online network as well. Again, members are encouraged to register for the network if they are not already a member and use this resource to share information and ask questions.

Higher ed professionals will share their questions on Thursday, May 7 from 1-2 p.m. (EST) as NASPA hosts the “Swine Flu:Campus Planning, Preparation & Implementation” conference telephone call with Henry Chung, MD, the associate vice president of Student Health and the executive director of the Student Health Center at New York University. The call is free for NASPA members (though long-distance charges do apply). Register for the phone call here.

Finally, below is a video posted by the White House over the weekend discussing the government’s response to the virus and steps to help prevent its spread.

News reports continue to update the number of suspected and confirmed cases of swine flu (or, more accurately, the H1N1 Influenza virus) on college campuses. InsideHigherEd.com is reporting instances at the University of Delaware, San Diego State University, California State University at Long Beach, and the University of Notre Dame.

A Google map, showing cases on an United States college campus has been set up by The International Association of Emergency Managers-Universities and Colleges Committee and the University of Oregon. It includes cases reported by an institution on their Web site, press release, or other official communication.

While these cases have not caused major disruptions of campus activities, the story does detail a number of cases where campuses are scuttling study-abroad programs in Mexico and bringing faculty and students already in Mexico back to campus.

ACUHO-I will continue to monitor the story and report new developments via this blog. Also, on the ACUHO-I online network, (if you’re not already a member, sign up only takes two minutes) members are encouraged to utilize the Health & Safety forum to post questions and share information  about steps being taken on their campus. The forum also allows the posting of files, so members can share policies, procedures, and planning documents).

UPDATE: The College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR) has posted a page on its Web site filled with links on crisis management and pandemic preparedness. The most recent updates include links to specific campus’s pages and other resources.

It’s still too early to see if it’s a case of media overload or a true emergency, but campuses can’t be too careful when it comes to student health. The Chronicle today reported on “just-in-case” precautions happening in student health centers everywhere. As Kent W. Bullis, the medical director at Ball State University in Indiana said in the story,  “You’ve got young people who are relatively densely packed into small areas, and you have a relatively mobile society. It’s the ideal place for something like this to spread.”

The American College Health Association has responded as well. Its Web site has been continually updated with new information as well as links to special sites set up by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the United States Deparment of Health and Human Services, and the World Health Organization.

Currently, the health departments are recommending common sense precautionary measures such as covering the nose and mouth when sneezing or coughing as well as frequent hand washes. People who are ill are being asked to stay home from work or school to limit contact with other people.