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Millersville University is a recipient of a grant from the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB) through the 2015-17 Alcohol Education Grant Program in order to reduce dangerous and underage alcohol consumption. Millersville University and Millersville Borough were two of four recipients selected from Lancaster County.
“We are very grateful to the PLCB for their generous funding of our alcohol abuse prevention programs,” said Daniel O’Neill, clinical psychologist in Millersville’s Department of Counseling and Human Development. “We strive to enable our students to make thoughtful and healthy decisions about alcohol use—based on what’s right for them, not some Hollywood notion of crazy college drinking.”
Millersville’s grant of $39,820 (of which the maximum is $40,000) will help the University develop strategies to reduce underage and dangerous alcohol consumption through enforcement efforts, social norm campaigns, online alcohol education and peer education.
“We are especially excited about the grant because it will allow us to expand our prevention programming for students participating in fraternities and sororities,” said O’Neill. “Our goal is to have leaders in the Greek community provide peer education and prevention programs for fellow members. Often peer education—students talking with students—can be the most effective intervention to reduce dangerous drinking.”
Millersville is one of 24 colleges and universities to receive the grant, which will help expand student knowledge of alcohol use through the Center for Health Education and Promotion (CHEP).
“This grant will provide the Center for Health Education and Promotion the opportunity to again survey Millersville student health behavior using the American College Health Association’s National Collegiate Health Assessment,” said Jayme Trogus, director of CHEP. “We typically survey students every other year to obtain accurate, up-to-date information. The data collected in this assessment is very helpful in prioritizing prevention efforts, assessing programming needs and is utilized to develop and implement a social norms campaign to provide students with accurate messages about the behaviors of their peers around alcohol and marijuana use. Funding from the grant will not only allow us to administer the survey but also implement a social norms campaign utilizing the data to promote the healthy behaviors of MU students.”
Other recipients of the grant in Lancaster Country were Elizabethtown Area Communities That Care ($38,604) and Franklin and Marshall College ($37,544).
