AMOD and slp3D present Live Webcast Featuring Lessons Learned from National Effort to Reduce High-Risk Drinking Among College Students.

Business Editors/Health/Medical Writers

NEWARK, Del.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 9, 2003

A Matter of Degree Campus-Community Partnerships to Share Successes in

60-minute, Live Web cast on June 11 from the University of Delaware,

With Moderator Ralph Begleiter, Former CNN Correspondent

A Matter of Degree (AMOD): The National Effort to Reduce High-Risk Drinking Among College Students is a multi-year, national pilot project designed to test an innovative approach to reducing college high-risk drinking and its harmful consequences for campus-communities. Representatives from the 10 AMOD campus-community partnerships will share their successes, challenges faced, and lessons learned through a live, interactive Webcast from the University of Delaware June 11 from 2 pm to 3 pm EDT.

The 10 campus-community partnerships of AMOD go beyond traditional prevention efforts that focus on the individual drinker, recognizing that the social environment influences individual decision making. AMOD partnerships have succeeded in restricting drink specials and controlling house parties and noise problems, and campus administrators are weighing in on alcohol licensing and zoning issues in the community. By creating viable, effective, campus-community coalitions, the responsibility for high-risk drinking among students and its related problems has shifted from the university to the community as a whole.

"Perhaps the greatest lesson learned through A Matter of Degree is that powerful changes can happen when the university joins forces with concerned community leaders, elected officials, law enforcement and others to address high-risk drinking," said Richard Yoast, PhD, director of the American Medical Association's Office of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse, which administers the project. "Tremendous progress has been made as a result of A Matter of Degree, and our goal is to share what we've learned with other campus administrators and concerned community leaders who want to make a change in their communities and to reduce high-risk drinking and its consequences."

The Webcast moderator will be Ralph Begleiter, the University of Delaware's Distinguished Journalist in Residence and former CNN World Affairs Correspondent and a broadcast journalist for more than 30 years.

A Matter of Degree is supported by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and managed by the American Medical Association's Office of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse.

For access to Webcast: http://www.slp3d2.com/bss_1088