OU students engaging in less high-risk drinking behaviors, down by 15 percent

Ohio University’s Division of Student Affairs released data from a recent survey indicating that the university has witnessed a 15 percent reduction in high-risk drinking behavior since 2007.The survey, administered by the Campus Involvement Center, received 1,262 respondents out of 17,007 Athens undergraduate students. It indicates that high-risk drinking behavior is now at 63 percent of the student body as compared to 78 percent in 2007.Ohio University Vice President for Student Affairs Ryan Lombardi addressed the many ways that the university has combated the high-risk drinking culture on campus,“Of course I’d like to see the number lower, but I’m pleased with the direction it’s headed,” Lombardi said.Lombardi said he’s seen students who have experienced the negative effects of this behavior, and he’s happy to see numbers decrease in several areas. Judicial violations, hospital visits and fest arrests, he said, have all decreased, indicating that fewer students are being attracted to this culture.The study was released with a margin of error of approximately 2.8 percent. Lombardi said that while he couldn’t speak to how accurately this characterizes the student body, he believes that we’ve seen a definite downward trend.“I recognize it’s only 1000-some of our students, so can I generalize and say it absolutely applies to every one of our students? Not so sure about that from a statistical perceptive, but it is a comparison to itself and what have found over the past several years,” Lombardi said.Lombardi said they’ve conducted the survey the same way since 2007, so he puts some credit in the data’s depiction of the student body’s behavior.“We’ve had about the same size population, we’ve administered it in the same way, so we’re really comparing apples to apples in terms of the percentages,” Lombardi said.From a student’s perspective, senior journalism major Bridget Mallon was more skeptical of the survey’s ability to accurately capture student behavior.“I don’t know. If they talked to the same 1,000 students over the past several years, that would make sense, but they may have just chosen a sample that is unbalanced, in that regard,” Mallon said.Lombardi said the focus for combating dangerous alcohol behavior on campus is through education, not punitive action. He cites Terry Koons and the Health Promotional Department as successes in this regard.“They really think in a forward way about how to communicate with students and we’re all trying the best that we can,” said Lombardi.