University of Houston-Victoria         

FY02-03 Biennial Drug/Alcohol Review and Report

 

 

Introduction

The Federal Drug-Free Schools and Campuses Regulations requires that, as a condition of receiving funds or any other form of financial assistance under any federal program, an institution of higher education must certify that it has adopted and implemented a program to prevent the unlawful possession, use or distribution of illicit drugs and alcohol by students and employees.   Failure to comply with the regulations may cause an institution to forfeit eligibility for federal funding.   In order to certify its compliance with the regulations, the University adopted and implemented a drug prevention program to prevent the unlawful possession, use, or distribution of illicit drugs and alcohol by all students and employees both on school premises, and as part of any of its activities.  Federal regulations required that the University do the following: 1) Prepare a written policy on alcohol and other drugs; 2) Develop a sound method for distribution of the policy annually to every student and employee; 3) Prepare a biennial review report on the effectiveness of its program; and 4) Maintain a copy of the biennial review report on file, available for inspection by the U.S. Department of Education.   Therefore, in compliance with federal requirements, this biennial review to assess the effectiveness of its alcohol and drug program has been prepared by a subcommittee of the campus Risk Management Advisory Committee.  The committee members included the Human Resources/Payroll/Benefits Manager, representing employees and HR issues; the Coordinator of Student Recruitment and Relations, representing students and the Director of Business Services, representing campus risk, safety and compliance issues. 

University Background

The University of Houston-Victoria (UHV) is an accredited member of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools-Commission on Colleges (SACS/COC) and was established in 1973.  The University has a unique structure for an institution of higher education.   UHV is not the typical four year university because it provides only upper-level (junior, senior)  and graduate instruction to students in Victoria and surrounding counties,  including collaborative programs in Fort Bend County.  The university serves students who have completed two or more years of college, providing bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, and professional certification programs. Many students are employed adults.  No freshman or sophomore level work is offered at UHV.   Lower level course work is available through the Victoria College, whose campus borders UHV.    The University is situated in a moderately rural area of south Texas and remains primarily a commuter institution.   The university has no student dormitories or other campus residency.  Also, the university due to its small size, does not have any campus medical facilities or on-site counseling services for the use of students or employees.  The city of Victoria itself, even though, it has two educational institutions with a combined student population approaching 6,000 students, is not considered a “college” town because a large part of the student population either commutes or takes courses online.  This information is provided as a possible reason why the alcohol and drug abuse on the campus seems to be very minimal.

Scope of the Review

In the scope of its review, the committee:

·          Reviewed the existing UHV Administrative Policy and Procedure, C-19, Drug and Alcohol Abuse Prevention,  for required content and overall structure.   The policy was also reviewed by an outside advisor;

·          Completed the Higher Education Center Compliance Checklist highlighting the legal requirements of the Drug-Free Schools and Campuses Regulations.  Completing the checklist was to gain an understanding of what had been done or needed to be done to satisfy the minimum requirements of the act.  A copy of the completed checklist is attached as a part of this review;

·          Posted the program policy and background information for a 10 day general comment period by any interested employees and students (no comments were received);

·          Reviewed the statistical data available regarding drug and alcohol abuse, specifically, the review of the most recent three years of police data (1999-2000-2001) for on-campus arrests and campus imposed disciplinary actions and/or judicial referrals regarding involving drug and alcohol violations;

·          Made recommendations (presented below) during the course of the review, on ways the program and information related to it might be improved or better presented;

·          Presented the policy, draft program review and program recommendations to the President and Administrative Cabinet for a final review and discussion before adoption.

Findings and Recommendations

The committee had the following findings and recommendations:

·          Recommends minor changes to the program policy C-19, including a change from the current long written descriptions of the various drugs and their effects to a chart presentation which is hoped to be more visually appealing, easier to read and more informative;

·          Found that for the three most recent years for which information is available (1999-2000-2001), there was only one arrest on campus for a drug law violation and there were no disciplinary actions or judicial referrals on campus for drug or alcohol abuse.  This information is also included in the Campus Security Report Crime Statistics published for the 2002-2003 academic year. 

·          Recommends that due to the potentially severe impact that a non-compliance finding may have on federal funding in the form of student financial assistance and other federally funded programs,  this requirement  be included as a High Risk/High Potential  (HH)  compliance issue  within the institution’s institutional compliance program;

·          Found that the program policy was being redistributed to employees and students annually primarily by electronic means.  The program is also presented to new employees as a part of new-employee orientation and a printed copy is provided. The committee recommends that this information be added to the current student online orientation, currently in the process of being updated, by the Orientation Committee;

·          Recommends that the annual employee distribution be coordinated by the Department of Business Services and the student distribution be the responsibility of the Student Relations and Recruitment Office.  Information should be distributed annually by October 1st of each year;

·          Recommends that informational notices be included on each student’s fee bill and periodically, included along with other information routinely distributed to students via e-mail list-service;

·          Recommends that the health services preferred provider agreement being created to offer counseling services to students and employees be used as a tool for the gathering of statistical information on the number of individuals with drug and alcohol abuse problems treated annually;

·          To increase the effectiveness of the program, the committee recommends that at least biennially, general student and employee surveys include appropriate questions to help determine the effectiveness or general perception of the program.

·          Recommends that a copy of this review and report be made available on the campus safety and risk web site.

Conclusions

The University of Houston-Victoria Drug and Alcohol Abuse Program appears to be in compliance with the minimum requirements of the federal legislation.  The University has a drug and alcohol program in place and, fortunately, due to the unique nature of the campus and the population served, the actual abuse of drug and alcohol by these students and employees appears to be very minimal, based upon the information and sources available.  The committee believes that certain elements of the program might be improved upon if some or all recommendations are incorporated.