The incoming freshman class of 2008 will be the first required to complete an online alcohol prevention program before taking classes in Athens. Failure to do so, though, might result in various penalties.
Students who do not complete the program, AlcoholEdu for College, by the middle of Fall Quarter will not be eligible to register for or take Winter Quarter classes. Ohio University officials, however, do not foresee having to enforce the new penalty.
I don't anticipate that being a problem
OU Dean of Students Terry Hogan said. The rate at which students are completing the course is already strong.
More than 600 of the 3,800 incoming freshmen already have completed the course, better than 15 percent of all freshmen, Hogan said. Not all of those students have had the opportunity to take AlcoholEdu, however, which is introduced to them at Precollege. Precollege continues through Friday.
A much higher completion percentage is expected by the beginning of Fall Quarter.
AlcoholEdu was introduced at OU by the Office of Judiciaries, which required it of some students who had been cited for various alcohol-related offenses. The program was first used during Fall Quarter 2002, said Director of Judiciaries Judith Piercy.
OU is one of almost 400 colleges and universities to use the program this year, and one of more than 100 to require it of all incoming freshmen, said Brandon Busteed, founder and CEO of Outside The Classroom, which produces AlcoholEdu.
Busteed, 27, developed the original idea for AlcoholEdu while still an undergraduate at Duke. Since that time, more than 25 national experts have contributed to the curriculum, he said.
The use of the program has grown since the company's founding in 2000 largely because
of positive reactions received from schools during the 2003-04 school year.
Last year what really changed our business is schools said 'This works
and when all freshmen take it
it really works
' Busteed said.
Our business is up almost 300 percent this year. We've been in business for four years
and it's been growing pretty fast
especially this year. Next year
my expectations are that this could be a freshman program at 500 to 1
000 universities.
Miami University also is requiring AlcoholEdu to be taken by all incoming freshmen, although the school has not stated any penalties for failure to complete the program. A number of schools have started to penalize students, though, Busteed said.
Frankly
that's what most of the schools are doing
