The broad, long-term objectives of the current proposal are to reduce college drinking problems and to create lasting environmental change in the culture of drinking via comprehensive campus-community interventions.
The specific aims of the proposal are (a) to test and evaluate the efficacy of limiting college student access to alcohol through increased enforcement of minimum drinking age laws (Tier 2 NIAAA strategy) and (b) to pilot test and evaluate the efficacy of the Neighborhood Engagement with Students (NEST) Project-multi-component environmental interventions that increase the bonds of students to campus and community and enhance their sense of belonging and responsibility (Tier 3 NIAAA strategy). The primary research aims will be carried out by conducting comprehensive college-community interventions in the Bellingham-WWU campus community and comparing their effect to two comparable Washington State campus communities that serve as assessment-only sites. Increased enforcement of minimum legal drinking age laws will be facilitated by the multijurisdictional cooperation of law enforcement agencies fostered through the Bellingham-WWU Campus Community Coalition. The NEST Project will be implemented through multicomponent environmental strategies on campus and in the community designed to (a) decrease the role of alcohol in student life, (b) increase student service-learning projects in the campus community, and (c) increase neighborhood accountability interventions. Annual assessments of drinking practices, negative consequences, perceived risks of drinking locations, and exposure to interventions will be conducted at WWU and the assessment-only sites prior to project implementation and in each successive year. Community-level Assessments of neighborhood quality-of-life indicators and alcohol retailer perceptions will be conducted as well. It will be possible with this design to evaluate the efficacy of (a) Tier 2 strategies that have reduced alcohol problems in the general population but previously have not explicitly included colleges and universities and (b) Tier 3 strategies that hold promise of effectiveness with college students and require more comprehensive evaluation. The design also allows for a process evaluation of the intentional mobilization of a campus community coalition, thereby contributing to the development of preliminary indicators of optimal strategies for college-community collaborations.
