The headline ran, “First Alcohol Czar Tapped,” and it signaled much more than a new hire. It reflected the strength of Harvard’s commitment to its newest initiative: alcohol education for the University’s nearly 20,000 students. Read the rest of this entry »

“Drunkenness was rampant and other crimes fed upon it including fighting, lying swearing, and card playing. In the class of 1728, for example, twenty-two students were variously punished for ‘nocturnal expeditions’ and ‘entertainments’ beginning with stealing and roasting geese and ending with drunken routs.”

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Tradition is a kind of epoxy–a potent mix of memory and ceremony–that binds the past to the present. The puritan tradition of stopping work to observe “days of thanksgiving”, now going on its four hundredth anniversary in the United States, is the occasion in many schools to teach children about the history of the nation and the values of the early colonists. But because tradition is so potent, it can also bind the present to the past: If someone hadn’t exercised a little discretion, we might be observing other Puritan traditions, too–most notably stopping work for “days of humiliation”. As it is, Valentine’s Day is bad enough without being a postal holiday. Read the rest of this entry »

Pam McCracken, Director of the Colorado State University’s Fort Collins campus Department of Alcohol and Drug Education and Prevention has held fast to a social norms approach to alcohol education because she knows it works. Read the rest of this entry »

Even after her campus came to national attention following the high-profile death of Colorado State University undergrad Samantha Spady from alcohol poisoning on the Fort Collins campus last year, Pam McCracken is resolute on the issue of remaining positive and steering clear of scare tactics in talking to students about alcohol use. Read the rest of this entry »

Universities have had uneasy relationships with their surrounding communities at least as far back as the thirteenth century, when frequent riots between townspeople and students caused Oxford to build its first residence halls. Read the rest of this entry »

For anyone doing social norms-based public health promotion, funding is a major concern. Getting turned down by a funder might discourage you from asking that agency or organization for a grant again, but, Carla Huyck says it shouldn’t. Read the rest of this entry »

With some unexpected partners, including bar owners, breweries and other entrepreneurs, Sergeant Jan Brown and Inspector Steve Greenacre of the Greater Manchester Police transformed the troubled night life of their city and reduced violent crime by 30%. One critical component of their success was Best Bar None, a program for assessing and reducing risk in venues that serve alcohol.
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On TV, police work never takes more than an hour; usually it’s less, if they need to save time for the trial. Real life is different. In 2001, when Inspector Steve Greenacre and his partner Sergeant Jan Brown set out to take a social norms approach to addressing alcohol-related crime in their hometown of Manchester, England, they hoped to do a campaign targeted at teens. They still haven’t gotten around to it, Greenacre told an audience of health promotion workers on June 16th here in Bozeman. Read the rest of this entry »

Manchester’s Inspector Steve Greenacre and Janet Brown have come a long way in the five years they’ve been working together. They covered that journey in their presentation of the City Center Safe/Best Bar None initiatives at this year’s Montana Summer Institute.

“When we started we were two police officers in a city in North West England. We had nothing at all to go on but there was this problem burning at us and we needed to do something about it.” Read the rest of this entry »