After 10 years of alcohol education programming, the project known as PACE: Reducing the Consequences of High-Risk Drinking, will no longer have funding from university grants. Over the past decade, PACE has worked together with university officials, UW-Madison and City of Madison Police, the City Council and many other organizations and committees to offer alcohol-free opportunities for university students.
PACE, named for its four pillars of policy, alternatives, community and education, was originally called UW-Madison's RWJ Project. The Robert Wood Johnson Healthcare Foundation, PACE's source of funding, will stop giving money to the project in September 2006.
Since 1995, the funding for PACE has been split 60 percent to 40 percent, with a majority coming from the Robert Wood Johnson Healthcare Foundation and the rest from the university.
The project has received a total of $1.2 million since it began 10 years ago. This money pays the staff of PACE and is used to improve and implement alcohol-free programming at the university.
Many good things have come from PACE in its time on campus, such as alcohol-free programs for underage students. The staff of PACE convinced the campus to engage in late-night programming.
'The PACE project deserves a lot of credit for having hours extended at both the SERF and the NAT, and Memorial Union and Union South,' said Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4.
'Our data shows a decrease in the negative consequences of binge drinking,' PACE Director Susan Crowley said. 'However, the number of students who report themselves as binge drinkers has not decreased.'
Crowley said the university readily implemented PACE's strategy. However, getting PACE programming in place was not always easy.
'The most difficult area of the project has been getting policy passed in the City of Madison,' Crowley said.
Verveer said it is harder to pass policy about alcohol when it is an off-campus matter. Therefore PACE has been unsuccessful in its efforts to ban drink specials at bars and require kegs to be registered when they are purchased.
Though there have been difficulties, the project committee has worked equally with UW-Madison and the City of Madison to change programs and policies.
Earlier this year, PACE helped change city ordinances so that students under the age of 21 can enter some bars where there is entertainment. The bars must give wristbands at the door and regulate alcohol consumption at the bar. Establishments pay $250 per year for a permit that allows them to do this.
'All around, the PACE project has been quite active,' Verveer said.
Although funding for the project is ending after this school year, that does not mean its efforts are over. 'I am confident that some version of PACE will continue after the funding expires,' Crowley said.
