The UW System Board of Regents met Thursday in Memorial Union to discuss a recent UW System study revealing the rate of binge drinking among UW students decreased from 2007 to 2009.
The regents and speakers at the event focused on substance abuse on Wisconsin campuses.
Mark Mailloux, UW-Platteville institutional research manager, said not only are the physical effects of alcohol detrimental to drinkers, but nondrinkers' academic activities can also be interrupted.
Deborah Ford, UW-Parkside chancellor, said there was a need for more initiatives to curtail substance abuse on UW campuses.
""We must continue to address the issues related to alcohol and drugs on our campuses and how use, misuse and abuse derail students from achieving their personal, academic and career goals,"" Ford said.
Matt Vogel, UW-La Crosse community health education specialist, said education and a change in society's mentality about mind-altering substances could help prevent abuse.
""We're very scared to talk about drugs,"" Vogel said. ""We still frame it as very dirty.""
Vogel said one important issue to consider when studying student drinking is that many students significantly overestimate the amount their peers drink.
In addition, he said college students are constantly exposed to an image of heavy alcohol consumption through media like MTV. This influences how administrators should go about addressing the issue, he said.
""There is a spectrum of how we view substances, and that's an important aspect of how we talk to students about it,"" Vogel said. ""If you're boldly moralistic [or] overly prohibitionist, that's when students don't hear it at all.""
The three speakers agreed that increased efforts to educate students about the physical and academic consequences of substance abuse are necessary.
