EIU Receives National Award for Alcohol Prevention Efforts

March 27, 2008

Eastern Illinois University is one of 10 institutions and organizations across the country to be honored for outstanding alcohol-abuse prevention efforts.

The Prevention Excellence Awards were recently presented to organizations that demonstrated their dedication to the health and safety of their students by implementing comprehensive alcohol prevention programs on their campuses.

“I am both pleased and proud that Eastern Illinois University has received national recognition for having achieved excellence in our alcohol prevention efforts,” said Daniel P. Nadler, vice president for student affairs. “The award is reflective of our EIU staff members who are deeply committed to addressing and reducing the negative academic, social and health consequences related to excessive drinking."

The awards are sponsored by Outside The Classroom Inc., the developer of AlcoholEdu, an online course that is used on more than 500 college campuses around the country, including EIU.

Since the 2006-2007 academic year, EIU has required incoming freshman students to take AlcoholEdu. After the first year, participants said they knew far more about alcohol's effects than before, and staff reported far fewer and less severe alcohol-related incidents.

“We know that AlcoholEdu has helped us significantly improve the quality of student life at the university,” Nadler said.

EIU also offers ongoing alcohol education through its Health Education Resource Center.
Other recipients of Prevention Excellence Awards were Bentley College, College of the Holy Cross, Delta Tau Delta International Fraternity, Delta Zeta Sorority, University of Alabama, University of Central Florida, University of Connecticut, University of Iowa and Villanova University.

“The applications we received this year were by far the strongest we’ve seen since the award was established three years ago," said Brandon Busteed, founder and CEO of Outside The Classroom.

"These institutions and greek organizations have truly established themselves as leaders in college alcohol prevention through their implementation of innovative programs and multi-disciplinary partnerships.”