Application of the Environmental Management Approach

Alcohol abuse is undoubtedly the highest-risk behavior among college students, and brings about serious and damaging negative effects not only for drinkers themselves but also through its secondary effects on other students. With this in mind, under the direction of the U.S. Department of Education, the Higher Education Center designed the environmental management model primarily to address student alcohol abuse, although it can also be readily applied to the problem of other drug use on campus. However, the application of environmental management to other drug use may not be apparent in the articulation of its approach as applied to alcohol. An introduction to ways in which the approach may be applied to the issue of other drug use is articulated on the page Preventing Other Drug Use on Campus.

The Higher Education Center acknowledges that the problem of campus violence is in many ways markedly different from alcohol and other drug (AOD) abuse among students, although these behaviors are sometimes linked. The Center has developed a comprehensive approach to address violence in and around campuses that also draws from the social ecological model of public health while differing in important ways from environmental management as applied to AOD behaviors. Readers interested in further information on the Center's approach to violence prevention on campus will find it in the Violence section of this Web site.