Promote or Improve Campus Policies

Clearly stated and consistently enforced campus policies ensure a healthy campus environment.  But first, you need to know your school’s policies on alcohol use.  Are these policies enforced consistently and appropriately?  Before adding new policies, students, administration and police can work together to enforce current policies.

Students, Faculty-Staff, Campus Law Enforcement

• Find out the specific alcohol-related policies on campus.
• Go through the policies to determine whether you believe they are effective.
• Set up a meeting between students and campus officials to discuss challenges and opportunities to strengthen existing policy enforcement.
• Schedule a meeting with the campus police.  Meet with the highest ranking officer to discuss the biggest obstacles to enforcing alcohol-related policies and how you can help support their efforts.
• Consider this list of promising policies and the possibility of adopting them on your campus
• Research other schools that have policies that have been a success.
• Utilize resources like the Higher Education Center or the NIAAA Report to help research recommended campus policies.
  
• Confirm the process for creating, implementing, and adopting campus policies and involve all the relevant individuals (student leadership, administration, and law enforcement or a combination).
• Determine the timeline for proposing new policies (when are policies adopted: any time, annually).
• Research to determine background factors that might prevent existing campus policies from being enforced? Who might be other campus “influencers” that you should meet with? (trustees, alumni, sponsors)
  
• What background support might be helpful in presenting new policies (e.g., other schools who have instituted a similar approach with success; research supporting your strategy)?