October 5, 2009

JHU holds symposium on reducing college-age drinking

Asymposium for college administrators, community leaders, policy-makers, students and faculty will be held at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 6, to discuss how to reduce the harmful use of alcohol on college campuses in Baltimore.

Johns Hopkins President Ronald J. Daniels will open the symposium, titled “Reducing Drinking on College Campuses: Where to From Here?” The event will take place in Homewood’s Mason Hall Auditorium.

The symposium will highlight issues surrounding the use of alcohol on college campuses and the evidence-based methods to address them, and will conclude by addressing potential next steps. Speakers will include Ralph Higson, director of the Division of Epidemiology and Prevention Research at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, an agency of the National Institutes of Health; Toben Nelson, assistant professor at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health; and Jonathan Gibralter, president of Frostburg State University, who was awarded the inaugural Presidential Leadership Award for his comprehensive efforts to reduce drinking on his campus.

The event is sponsored by the Office of the Dean of Student Life, Student Health and Wellness Center, and Center for Health Education and Wellness, all at Homewood; and the Bloomberg School of Public Health and its Department of Health, Behavior and Society, Center for Injury Research and Policy, Center for the Prevention of Youth Violence, Center for Adolescent Health and Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth.