“This award will enhance the neighborly cooperation we already have in Troy,” says Theresa Kersch, certified health education specialist at Rensselaer’s Gallagher Student Health Center. “We will use it to continue to target two different audiences with the same powerful message: Too much drinking hurts us all.”
Grant Money Goes Far in Preventing Problems
Rensselaer’s active campus/community coalition addresses alcohol abuse in a number of ways. For example, as part of the First Year Experience (FYE) orientation program, freshmen get involved in a frank discussion about the dangers of underage and high-risk drinking. Ongoing campus efforts include alcohol awareness training for Resident Assistants, and on-demand educational programs, which are popular with fraternities and sororities.
Area high school students get the message through billboards and flyers distributed during prom and commencement season. Local tavern owners can take part in free TIPS (Training for Intervention Procedures) sessions, which will help them reduce underage and high-risk drinking. In addition, Rensselaer has provided many area bartenders with free license verifiers, handheld devices that can detect ID forgery.
About Rensselaer
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, founded in 1824, is the nation's oldest technological university. The school offers degrees in engineering, the sciences, information technology, architecture, management, and the humanities and social sciences. Institute programs serve students and working professionals around the world. Rensselaer faculty members are known for pre-eminence in research conducted in a wide range of research centers characterized by strong industry partnerships. The Institute is especially well known for its success transferring technology from the laboratory to the marketplace allowing new discoveries and inventions to benefit human life, protect the environment, and strengthen economic development.