Having fought for substantial funding to introduce secondary alcohol abuse prevention programs, Dr. Terry Rentner has created another line of defense against substance abuse at the University.

In a survey by the American College Health Association, 56 percent of University students surveyed admitted to having five or more alcoholic drinks in a sitting more than once in a two-week period.

High statistics of alcohol abuse prompted Rentner, an associate professor of journalism, to draft a proposal to the U.S. Department of Education.

The 100-page document she submitted earned the University a two-year, $300,000 federal grant intended to stop high-risk drinking.

‘I hope the grant will help to prevent alcohol poisoning and alcohol abuse, and keep students out of situations which can lead to things they later regret,’ said Rentner, now director of the new grant project.

Since 1997, the University has incorporated a social norms approach in an attempt to change students’ attitudes regarding dangerous drinking. Those at greatest risk of abusing alcohol have largely ignored the message, a problem which the new programs are designed to address.

First-year students are among those most at risk to develop unsafe drinking habits. As part of the secondary prevention programs, these new students are being asked to take AlcoholEdu, an online risk education program and one part of Rentner’s project, during their first semester.

‘Years of research on this campus and others have indicated that first-year students, athletes, and members of Greek organizations are most at risk when it comes to alcohol abuse,’ Rentner said.

Both Greek affairs officials and University coaches are working to make sure that the students in their organizations are participating in the program.

Other associations are also involved in the far reaching efforts being provided by the grant. Wellness Connection workers, Wood County Hospital emergency room staff members as well as campus and city police are being trained based on National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism guidelines on how to respond to students with alcohol problems.

‘It helps when you have a lot of people coming together to discuss the issue,’ said Barbara Hoffman, health promotion coordinator at the Wellness Connection.

James Wiegand, chief of police at the University, said officers are being taught to take every detail of a scene into account to determine how they should best react to cases of alcohol abuse or poisoning among students.

Police response training is especially important because the fear students have of being caught drinking underage frequently results in them waiting until an emergency situation before seeking medical attention.

‘They are trained in-service so they know how to safely respond to severe cases,’ Wiegand said.

Bringing a stop to the most dangerous cases of student alcohol abuse is what Rentner hopes the new programs will accomplish.

As a trailblazer for other schools’ alcohol education policies, the form taken by these new University initiatives will help shape future programs funded by the federal government.

Having worked to earn the University nine state grants from the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services and a previous federal grant, Rentner knows the importance of setting realistic goals.

‘My goal is not to force students to abstain from drinking, but to lead them to make healthy decisions,’ Rentner said.