The University, in partnership with Lane County Prevention Program@@http://preventionlane.org/@@, hosted a town hall-style meeting titled, “Mobilizing the Community to Prevent High-Risk Drinking” Wednesday evening.@@http://www.preventionlane.org/UO-town-hall.htm@@
The event, which included a panel of professors, police and various other professionals within the Eugene community, was funded through a grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and discussed an array of questions and possible solutions to underage and high-risk drinking.
Robin Holmes, vice president of student affairs,@@http://vpsa.uoregon.edu/biography@@ began the meeting with opening remarks reflecting on University students’ alcohol use and the widespread effects it has on them.
“All of us know that issue of high-risk drinking is a pervasive problem,” Holmes said. “Our students grew up in a culture which equates the consumption of alcohol with having fun, relaxing and making social situations complete. Unfortunately, high-risk alcohol use can produce serious outcomes.”
The panelists were then given the opportunity to weigh in and discuss, in a free-flowing manner, several questions regarding not only underage, but also high-risk drinking behaviors prevalent amongst University students.
Panel member David Montgomery, assistant district attorney for Lane County@@http://www.lanecounty.org/Departments/DA/Pages/alphabeticalattorneys.aspx@@, brought up the fact that these high-risk drinking behaviors affect not only the individual consuming but also have a financial effect on the community as well.
“It’s not just costing you money in terms of fines and in terms of jail, but it costs the community money,” Montgomery said.  “It costs money for me to prosecute you, it costs the judge money to listen to you and your defense attorney … It costs the community money to deal with you, if you find yourself in a situation where you’ve committed a crime or even a violation.”
The discussion continued with questions regarding the impact of high-risk drinking on the community and what were effective strategies to reduce rates of high-risk drinking among young adults.
The town hall meeting concluded with a question-and-answer segment where the floor was opened to all those in attendance.
University junior Ashley Shaffer, who attended the meeting, believed preventing underage and high-risk drinking was key.@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Ashley+Shaffer@@
“I thought it was interesting,” Shaffer said. “There’s a lot of good ideas, but I think overall you can’t always control what students are going to be doing, and implementing more ways of preventing these types of things would be better.”