KU receives grant for Jayhawk Buddy System


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LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas has received a $10,000 grant from The Foundation for Alcohol Research’s Great Plays program to support KU’s Jayhawk Buddy System. Similar funds could be available for a second and third year of the program, subject to the availability of funds and the Foundation’s review of the program’s progress.

Funding for the program is provided by MillerCoors Brewing Company through its association with Kansas Athletics and IMG College, Kansas Athletics’ multimedia rights partner. MillerCoors is a sponsor of the Jayhawk Radio and Television Networks; it includes a “Responsibility” message in all of its advertising on broadcasts of Kansas Athletics events.

The Jayhawk Buddy System at KU is a protective campaign, designed to a) encourage students to engage in protective behaviors around the high-risk activities of celebratory drinking and typical weekend drinking, and b) establish social norms that encourage students to intervene with their buddies, around their drinking behavior, before negative incidents (i.e., injury or arrest) occur.

Frank DeSalvo, KU associate vice provost for student affairs, said KU would direct a significant portion of the grant revenue toward the evaluation of the JBS’s impact on students’ use of protective behaviors and effective intervention with their friends. The remaining funds will support the development of student training materials and the purchase of promotional items like cups and T-shirts that carry the JBS logo and its “ACT” message: Agree to stay together. Check on each other regularly. Take charge to get home safely. Finally, the funds will be directed toward the development and distribution of JBS social norms posters to residence halls and Greek houses.

“The collective goal of Great Plays is to develop effective programs to eliminate underage drinking and the harm associated with hazardous patterns of drinking on college campuses,” said Erin Teigen, the Foundation’s grants program administrator.

“On behalf of the Jayhawk Buddy System I wish to thank The Foundation for Alcohol Research for approving our request for grant funding,” DeSalvo said. “We also deeply appreciate their constructive criticism of our application; we have assured them that we will make good use of it. The Jayhawk Buddy System looks forward to developing a long and productive relationship with The Foundation for Alcohol Research and Great Plays.”

The Foundation for Alcohol Research is a private foundation supporting research on the effects of alcoholic beverages on health and behavior. The research grants program of ABMRF addresses many issues connected with consumption of alcoholic beverages in areas such as molecular neuroscience, cardiovascular disease, as well as important topics in social and behavioral research. The Great Plays program focuses on prevention and intervention on college campuses and is separate from the primary research portfolio of the ABMRF, which accepts investigator-initiated applications from young investigators at universities and medical schools throughout the U.S., Canada and South Africa. ABMRF receives support from individual companies in the brewing industry of the U.S. and Canada.

 

Thu, 04/12/2012

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Jim Marchiony

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