motivation, and they are particularly sceptical of social norms marketing  in

view of drinks industry support for this new approach to alcohol education.

The other major individual strategy which features in the literature refers to

the use of health and counselling services for screening and identifying

students already involved in hazardous or harmful drinking habits;  there is

now consensus on the value of brief or opportunistic interventions with such

students (Dimeff et al., 1999). 

In the micro environment of third level colleges, as in the wider society,

environmental strategies for alcohol problem prevention are those which

focus on the way in which individual decision making is influenced by

promotion, price and availability of alcohol.  In a college context, the aim of

such  strategies  is to create an environment which facilitates the making of

sensible drinking choices by students. The most commonly advocated

strategies (Toomey and Wagenaar, 2002)  include: controlling  drinks

industry sponsorship of student societies and events, particularly when such

sponsorship comes in the form of free product; restricting alcohol

promotions which encourage rapid or heavy drinking; limiting alcohol

advertising on campus; providing Responsible Serving of Alcohol (RSA)

training  for serving staff in college bars; providing social and recreational

facilities which do not involve alcohol on campus or in student residences;

and creating and enforcing a disciplinary code which does not accept

intoxication as an excuse for aggressive or destructive behaviour on campus

or in residences. Research support for the effectiveness of environmental

policies is generally much stronger than that for any of the individual

strategies but, since they involve social controls and are aimed at all

students rather than at a sub group identified as being high risk, they

cannot be expected to gain automatic support from either students or staff

(Snow et al., 2003).  It is also recognised within the health promotion

literature that without the mobilisation and maintenance of broad support

networks   including academics, student unions, student service systems

and senior managements   for such environmental policies,  they are

unlikely to  succeed in reducing alcohol related problems on campus

(Tsouros et al., 1998; De Jong and Langford, 2002).  

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