Contact: Kenneth Billings
STARKVILLE, Miss.--With a U.S. Education Department grant of more than $355,000, Mississippi State is leading a three-university coalition titled "Stay Dry: Mississippi Coalition of Partners in Prevention."
The campus' Division of Student Affairs and its health education and wellness department are co-sponsors with counterparts at Mississippi University for Women and the University of Mississippi on a project designed to reduce alcohol use and binge drinking by students under 21, the state's minimum legal drinking age.
April Heiselt and Joyce Yates are co-principal investigators in planning, implementing and evaluating the grant. Heiselt is an MSU assistant professor of counseling and educational psychology; Yates, the health education and wellness department's director.
"Under-age drinking and binge drinking are rapidly growing problems in both the state and nation," Yates said. "We want to dispel the myth that alcohol use is an integral part of college life.
"With this grant, we hope to have a positive impact on student communities by partnering with our sister universities to create an effective program that will help reduce these dangerous practices and create a safer environment for all," she added.
Yates said an overall strategic plan will be supported by individual campus strategies. An education and awareness marketing program, peer mentor campaign and various alcohol-free social events are key components of the MSU strategy, she explained.
Yates said Stay Dry on the MSU campus also complements the Bully Choices grant awarded earlier this year. Supported by an NCAA grant, Choices focuses on reducing alcohol abuse among the entire student body. (For more on Choices, visit www.msstate.edu/web/media/detail.php?id=4597).
For details on Stay Dry, contact Yates at 662-325-7545 or 325-2141, or jyates@saffairs.msstate.edu
For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.