An ounce of prevention, a pound of cure

“Alcohol is present in approximately 50% of sexual assaults but it’s typically not the sole reason an assault occurs,” Dr. Antonia Abbey, professor of psychology at Wayne State University and expert in violence against women, said to over 600 student affairs professionals during her closing plenary speech. “It’s usually accompanied by other, stronger factors.”

Dr. Abbey’s closing session was a perfect capstone after four days of learning and discussions at the 2015 NASPA Mental Health; Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Prevention; and Violence Prevention Conferences, a trio of conferences held concurrently by NASPA. She used the above example to highlight how preventing sexual assaults must account for more than just mental health, or more than alcohol consumption, or just violence prevention efforts.

A New Addition

Previous Mental Health or Alcohol, Other Drug Abuse, and Violence Prevention Conferences attendees might have noticed a new option when it came time to register: Violence Prevention.

While it had been featured as a session track at previous conferences NASPA recognized the increasing importance of violence prevention on college campuses and, under the leadership of  Vice President for Professional Development Stephanie Gordon, announced the creation of the NASPA Violence Prevention Conference. Thanks to the hard work of the conference planning committee and Associate Vice President for Equity, Inclusion & Violence Prevention Nancy Cantalupo it became a reality.

In the wake of an increased national focus on gender-based violence and an increase in campus shootings, the Violence Prevention Conference was perfectly timed to provide attendees a venue to share ideas and learn from their colleagues in the profession.

“We’re putting a strong emphasis on gender-based violence at this year’s event,” Quinn-Zobeck said. “NASPA has been at the table for some really challenging discussions around VAWA and the Clery Act and this conference allows us to really explore in-depth these issues with our members.”

Sessions throughout the conference ran with that message. One session, “Bystander with a Twist,” provided an incredible look at a bystander intervention program launched at a predominantly male institution. Their presentation showed how their surveys and focus groups provided them much needed information and demonstrated the program was successful.

One of the biggest takeaways? Male students felt that they were being attacked by previous campaigns. Using this knowledge, they created an intervention program that:

• Enlisted students as partners in bystander intervention
• Highlighted that gender-based violence impacted males and females
• Used memes like Grumpy Cat to spread awareness
• Also used pop culture references, like a scene from 22 Jump Street, to raise awareness
• Surveys showed that superheroes like Superman were popular among the students. Their giveaways featured a modified Superman logo as well as capes that students could wear around campus.

Their successes continued as the program matured, allowing them to incorporate more programs and topics beyond just sexual assault as well as reaching out to staff and faculty.

Pushing the envelope to continuously assess and improve programs was a common theme in this program and throughout the conference. The spirit of collaboration to improve services and better serve students from an integrative approach was one of the hallmarks of program enrichment.

Impact of Legalization

An area of increased focus was marijuana and the impact that legalization has had in Washington and Colorado. Presenters from the University of Washington were uniquely positioned to share the knowledge that they had learned over the past year with their colleagues from around the country.

Their biggest takeaway from research into I-502, the initiative that legalized marijuana in Washington State, was that there was a general lack of education about what the law actually did. Only 5.5 percent of survey respondents were able to correctly identify all six provisions in the initiative. 39 percent scored got less than half correct.

But, because of a delay in approving dispensaries to open (and a subsequent delay in tax revenue from legalization) there’s no funding available for education or research to address these knowledge gaps. A major gap, regardless of state funding, however, is the fact that state education campaigns wouldn’t address one of the biggest sources of confusion regarding marijuana legalization: out of state students.

When asked about the funding and knowledge gap, the presenters expressed some concern at their ability to further study the topic. Without access to Federal funding they're reliant on private grants and .6 percent of all marijuana tax revenue, of which there’s been only a small amount collected.

“Canary in the Coal Mine”

Dr. Ben Locke asked every other person in his plenary session to stand up. Then, he asked every third person to stand up. The former represented the percentage of students who visited a counseling center while the latter represented how many students seriously considered suicide.

He continued to speak about the critical role that counseling centers played on campuses. “Counseling centers can be a canary in the coal mine when it comes to a mental health crisis.” He continued by saying that mental health problems are no longer “rare” on campus, attributing some of this to the increase in college enrollment in the latter half of the 20th century.

To help, Dr. Locke implored attendees “to be able to speak with confidence” about their counseling centers when it comes to the work they’re doing. With few institutions meeting the suggested ratio of one counselor per 1,000 students and only about 6.3 percent of funding going towards mental health treatment, counselors can’t afford to let counseling centers be perceived as “black holes” of funding.

Referring to research done by the Gates Foundation that found that almost 1/3 of productivity losses are due to mental health problems, his suggestion to practically fill this funding gap was simple: counseling center costs can be covered by better treating students and allowing them to stay in school and continue to pay tuition.

Student affairs professionals all have a role in helping colleges succeed, and working together to create better referral systems and collaborations with counseling centers is one great way to ensure students have the resources they need to succeed.

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By the last day, many attendees were nursing an extra coffee as they hurried between the last few sessions at the hotel. Luggage lined the back of the rooms. But each person was intently focused on the presentations they were attending, searching for that last nugget of information or spark of innovation that they could bring back to their campus.

The dedication of campus professionals focused on prevention work was evident in those last coffee-fueled sessions. Conversations were intense, but all focused on the common good of working together to serve students on the prevention continuum. If the old modicum, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, is true then we should be excited about the new tools, ideas, and strategies that conference attendees took back to their campuses.