Western faculty member Patricia Fabiano was awarded the Outstanding Contribution to Higher Education Award on March 9 for her research regarding alcohol and drug abuse on college campuses.

Fabiano and a grant-funded staff were able to shift students’ misperceptions about alcohol consumption through a marketing campaign around Western, leading to a 20 percent decrease in drinking on campus.

The National Association of Student Personnel Administration is a 93-year-old student affairs association that gives this national award to one person every year.   

 
“Pat has a record of strong leadership within the field of higher education,”  said Joseph DeSanto, the assistant director of NASPA educational programs.

He said Fabiano was chosen for this award because the association recognized her research at Western, as well as her influence in higher education at other universities. Anyone is eligible for this award, specifically if they have conducted research or put together programs and policies that have made a national impact on students and higher education," DeSanto said.

 

What was your specific research on drug and alcohol abuse on campus?

We did extensive surveying of large samples and got literally thousands of students to participate in our surveys. We had very good incentives and we found out that most Western students, when they go out and have a good time on the weekend, drink somewhere in the range of one to four drinks. However when you ask them how much they think the typical Western student drinks, they think that most Western students drink five, 10, 20 drinks. And so they think they are moderate, but think other students are radical in their alcohol consumption. You may think “so what?” Well we found that students who come to campus who are already predisposed to high consumption, when they believe everybody else falsely is drinking a lot, they drink a lot. By changing perceptions, we were able to show a 20 percent change in drinking on campus simply by shifting students’ perceptions to be more accurate about what typical students do. 

 

What motivated you to do this kind of research?

 That’s a very good question. As the director of Prevention and Wellness my job was not to worry about the sick students, they were at the health center. My job was to keep healthy students healthy. The way to do that was to appeal to what students already knew­­­—the positive part of student life and to correct all these misperceptions about what students were doing. I got very excited about what we could do from an assets-based perspective, from a positive perspective. Focusing not on “don’t drink, it’s bad,” but rather “hey, be healthy, be like most Western Students.” Most Western students either don’t drink at all or drink very moderately when they do drink. I got really excited about contributing to what I consider the healthy part of student life on campus. I think treating students like they deserve to be treated is important.
They already come with a lot of capacity; they’re not broken when they come to campus. The students already know a whole lot of good stuff, and they actually pick up a lot of bad habits when they come to campus. I saw my job as preventing those bad habits from ever taking place.

 

What do you feel you have contributed to students?

I’ve been able to pass a lot on to other colleagues in student affairs. I have the privilege of training professionals—both here at Western and outside of Western—to adopt the same practices, assessments and all the good things that we know contribute to working better with students.

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