The U.S. Department of Education has awarded Fordham University a grant to develop an alcohol prevention program for student athletes that will involve a collaborative effort by the Alcohol and Other Drug Education (AODE) Program, the Center for Ethics Education and the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics and Recreation.
As part of the grant project, known as the Fordham Athlete Alcohol Prevention Initiative, the University will create the Student Life and Athletics Administrators Coalition to enhance strategies for early identification and prevention of student athlete high-risk drinking. In addition, leaders from each varsity sports team at Fordham will be given alcohol intervention training in an effort to foster change in team culture and peer expectations.
“This unique partnership that involves the social science expertise of the Center for Ethics Education and the student life expertise of the AODE Office and the Department of Athletics epitomizes Fordham’s leadership, ongoing commitment and synergistic approach to reducing underage and high-risk student drinking,” said Celia Fisher, Ph.D., the Marie Ward Doty Professor of Psychology and director of the Center for Ethics Education. Fisher will head the project with Edward Wahesh, director of the AODE Program.
The AODE Program manages substance abuse prevention at Fordham, and its initiatives range from education to early-intervention strategies. The Center for Ethics Education, which was established in 1999, draws on theology, philosophy, social and physical science, law and other areas to provide the multidisciplinary education necessary to advance the common good.
The new program is the second grant-funded collaboration between the Center for Ethics Education and the Division of Student Affairs. In 2005, the center and the Fordham Office of Residential Life began a three-year National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism-funded initiative known as the Resident Alcohol Prevention Program.
