Literature Review Blog #2

Goodale, Thomas G. Alcohol and the College Student. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1986. Print.

This book discusses what history has taught us about alcohol and how higher education has neglected this problem for years.  Alcohol abuse has been recognized as a leading social and health threat to students and in response, colleges have developed a variety of programs and policies to help reduce the incidence of alcohol-related problems on campus.  Two students give their perspective on campus alcohol policies and programs.

Thomas G. Goodale is vice chancellor for student affairs and professor of education at the University of Denver.  He has served as a consultant to various colleges and universities on the issue of use and abuse of alcohol.

Components of Model Alcohol Programs- Alcohol awareness activities, alcohol information and resource center, alcohol and health promotion workshops, academic courses, an advisory committee, counseling and referral, training and supervision, and research and evaluation.  This model alcohol program is Goodale’s idea of a good alcohol education program that universities should utilize to prevent alcohol related incidents with students.

Alcohol abuse problems on campus are not limited to alcoholism but include a wide range of negative consequences such as driving after excessive drinking, missing classes because of hangovers, nausea and vomiting, fighting and vandalism.

“College is the place where many students learn to drink and where those who began earlier developed the patterns to which they will adhere for years.” (page 10) This quote says how college is a place where many kids start drinking and kids that have already been drinking continue patterns they have started and will continue for years.

“Drinking is an extremely important part of the college experience. It is the facilitator that accompanies every meaningful social event and is the sign of a person’s well adjusted sociability.” (page 11) This quote emphasizes the importance of drinking as a social behavior and how it is linked to most important social events.

“In the past, most campus alcohol abuse prevention programs have focused exclusively on the individual student; recently, colleges have begun to examine their alcohol policies and many have revised them to be more consistent with the alcohol education messages that have been directed to students over the years.” (page 29) This shows how universities can’t ignore the presence of alcohol on campus and are trying to better integrate their policies to to get through to students.

This material provides a lot of facts and field research that will be useful to understand and support my arguments.  Goodale also goes into depth with the policies of universities and how they should be changed or structed to better suite the presence of alcohol on campus.