Penn College-Community Coalition Receives $15,000 Grant

The Penn College and Community Coalition has been awarded a federal grant to carry on its efforts to prevent underage and excessive drinking by students.

The $15,220 grant, which is administered by the state Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement and awarded through the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, will enable the coalition to tackle a number of new activities in the 2001-02 academic year.

The group plans to administer a campuswide survey on drug and alcohol use, take measures to increase the police presence, secure outside speakers to address the Pennsylvania College of Technology community in a panel forum, and stage more events like the recent "Ice Cream Social," which educated students about the dangers of underage drinking and alcohol abuse as they enjoyed free ice-cream sundaes. Approximately 250 people were served at the event, which was held outside the Alvin C. Bush Campus Center.

The coalition is also arranging for a consultant to perform curriculum-infusion training for a select group of faculty members. The educators will be shown how to incorporate alcohol-related issues into their classrooms.

"Receiving these monies through the Enforcing Underage Drinking Grant will enable the College and Community Coalition to continue and strengthen its efforts to reduce underage and excessive drinking," said Sharon Waters, director of career/academic support and counseling at Penn College. We are pleased to have the opportunity to expand our programming and build upon the successful work of the coalition to date."

The Core Alcohol and Drug Survey that will be administered to students this academic year will be of particular importance, since it will provide the baseline data with which the coalition can establish goals and track its progress. The Core Institute is a nonprofit organization based at Southern Illinois University that helps institutions of higher education with drug-and-alcohol prevention efforts.

The Penn College and Community Coalition - which includes faculty, staff and administrators from the College, as well as law-enforcement and government officials, landlords and community leaders - was formed in the fall of 1999 with the help of a grant from the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board. It meets on a monthly basis to advance its mission, which is to prevent underage and excessive drinking by students.

Penn College recently was honored with a Governor's Highway Safety Award in the "Alcohol Highway Safety" category for the work performed by the coalition. Waters will accept the award on the College's behalf at the Governor's Highway Safety Conference in Camp Hill on Oct. 19.