UA Seeks to Build Healthy Environment as Student-Centered Research University
by J. Barry Mason, Interim President, The
University of Alabama
November 17, 2002
At The University of Alabama, our faculty, staff and students are embracing afresh the concept of a student-centered research university, and defining and redefining our responsibilities in that role. We seek to build an academic, social and physical environment that will nurture mutual respect, friendliness, inclusiveness, and personal growth. Promoting health of the mind, body and spirit is at the heart of those endeavors.
In this same self-examination mode, we are asking ourselves critical questions about at-risk behavior among college students, including problems with alcohol and other drug abuse. The headlines tell us what we already know: nationally, binge drinking and underage drinking continue to be critical problems — as are associated risks including alcohol poisoning, impaired driving and resultant traffic accidents, dating violence and date rape. And while it doesn't always make headlines, sadly, this at-risk behavior is often at the root of academic failure. Students who make healthy lifestyle choices are more likely to be successful in the classroom and in life.
I know college presidents throughout the country share these concerns. We want all students to have a healthy, supportive learning environment. We are committed to partnerships with our parents, students, secondary school teachers, counselors, and community leaders to create an environment that strives to help all students succeed. But we also know there are no simple answers. Research reports in the spring issue of the Journal of American College Health show that most alcohol and drug education programs of the past have failed miserably.
One promising research finding, however, looks at the value of state and local control policies and their enforcement. Colleges in states that enact and enforce more comprehensive laws restricting underage drinking and high volume sales of alcohol at low prices have lower rates of binge drinking. "This finding highlights the importance of working with your state, city and community and law enforcement officials," writes Dr. Henry Wechsler, director of college alcohol studies at Harvard School of Public Health. Research shows ordinances that set reasonable limits on hours of operation for bars and that prohibit the sale of excessively low-priced alcohol do help reduce high-risk behavior. In addition, existing alcohol laws, including those prohibiting underage drinking, can be better enforced if hours are shortened. We are hopeful our local community will continue to work with us in establishing these reasonable limits in our Tuscaloosa and Northport communities. Currently, our university is the only SEC school located in a city with no restrictions on weekday and Saturday bar hours. We know we can do better. Already, we are seeing great commitment by our law enforcement agencies to work together to enforce existing laws, and we are most grateful for their service and assistance.
On campus, we are looking for every opportunity to provide entertaining but healthy activities for our students and family-friendly campus events for our university community and guests. A comprehensive program we call Healthy Campus 2010 shows promise for creating awareness and inspiring a culture that promotes wellness and the benefits of making healthy lifestyle choices.
As we look at the myriad of factors influencing student success and retention in college, we know that freshmen are challenged by the social transition from high school as many of them get their first taste of freedom from "parental controls." We continue to add programs and adjust our teaching approaches to help our freshmen thrive during that critical first year. One such effort involves giving parents and students grade reports at mid-term, when there's still time to adjust study habits and improve grades. Some of our most prominent senior faculty members teach small group freshman seminars so new students have yet another opportunity to get excited about learning and to work with the nation's best scholars and teachers. We offer unique living/learning communities where faculty live in residence halls and are available to students as mentors and role models.
Our Student Success Council focuses on early intervention to facilitate student academic success and retention. Thanks to those efforts, we now have early warning systems for poor grades in freshman math and other courses that tend to catch new students off guard. Innovative math labs offer interactive math instruction that's improving scores in this critical area of study. Retention from the freshman to sophomore year has improved to over 83 percent thanks to the work of our faculty, staff and students. But we must do more, and this year with the faculty we will re-visit the topics of class attendance, grade inflation, and similar issues central to a high quality classroom experience.
We speak often of student success: indeed, we ask ourselves daily what we can do to help each of our 19,633 students achieve their goals — not just academically, but spiritually and emotionally as well. In that process, we do many things — most things — right, but if there's one critical area for improvement, it's in raising expectations. Our students are only as good as we expect them to be, and we must be sure that our expectations are high and clearly expressed.
In the firm belief that collaboration and innovation within the community always yields positive results, we will continue to look for ways to make a difference in the lives of our students. We thank our friends throughout the state and nation who are partnering with us in these endeavors. We are a great public university, and as we set challenging goals for the future, work together to solve problems, and keep students at the center of our work, we will continue to grow in stature.
