2008 Woodie Awards
Dorms use new alcohol education techniques
Sarah Mayher
Issue date: 8/31/07 Section: Campus
With the safe use of alcohol long an issue of contention on Miami University's campus, the university is stepping up its measures this year in hopes of preventing on-campus students from falling victim to the dangers of alcohol.
In addition to increasing the costs for alcohol-related violations to the Student Code of Conduct, one new education option has come about from Miami's journalism program.
During the 2006 fall semester, the COM/JRN 314: Advanced Television Reporting class, instructed by Joe Sampson, produced a DVD titled "Restoring Honor: A Campus and Community Response."
The film addresses and questions the magnitude of Miami's drinking problem as well as the consequences that impact both the school's students and members of the Oxford community.
Accompanying the video is a discussion guide-the result of collaboration between Sampson, Rob Abowitz, associate director of residence life, and Leslie Haxby McNeill, assistant director and prevention coordinator at the Office of Health Education.
According to Abowitz, each residence hall is responsible for taking part in an "alcohol awareness" activity within the first five weeks of the school year, and now residence assistants (RAs) and Peer Hawks (students involved with health education at Miami) have the option to show "Restoring Honor" to fulfill this requirement.
Sampson and Richard Campbell, director of Miami's journalism program, have also offered to be discussion leaders for the project.
Haxby hopes that the video will promote discussion and help students protect themselves from the potential negative effects of alcohol.
"We have no real expected outcomes for the project," Sampson said. "We only feel that students are not as involved as they should be."
McNeill believes that since the "Restoring Honor" film is a "student-driven" project, it is not judgmental and will allow students to talk freely about alcohol with their RAs.
"Students should realize that we are not just a campus," McNeill said. "We are a community."
In addition to increasing the costs for alcohol-related violations to the Student Code of Conduct, one new education option has come about from Miami's journalism program.
During the 2006 fall semester, the COM/JRN 314: Advanced Television Reporting class, instructed by Joe Sampson, produced a DVD titled "Restoring Honor: A Campus and Community Response."
The film addresses and questions the magnitude of Miami's drinking problem as well as the consequences that impact both the school's students and members of the Oxford community.
Accompanying the video is a discussion guide-the result of collaboration between Sampson, Rob Abowitz, associate director of residence life, and Leslie Haxby McNeill, assistant director and prevention coordinator at the Office of Health Education.
According to Abowitz, each residence hall is responsible for taking part in an "alcohol awareness" activity within the first five weeks of the school year, and now residence assistants (RAs) and Peer Hawks (students involved with health education at Miami) have the option to show "Restoring Honor" to fulfill this requirement.
Sampson and Richard Campbell, director of Miami's journalism program, have also offered to be discussion leaders for the project.
Haxby hopes that the video will promote discussion and help students protect themselves from the potential negative effects of alcohol.
"We have no real expected outcomes for the project," Sampson said. "We only feel that students are not as involved as they should be."
McNeill believes that since the "Restoring Honor" film is a "student-driven" project, it is not judgmental and will allow students to talk freely about alcohol with their RAs.
"Students should realize that we are not just a campus," McNeill said. "We are a community."
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