Social Norms Campaigns and You A department’s journey towards a

comprehensive high-risk drinking and drug abuse prevention and

intervention plan

Jen Sell-MatzkeAssociate Director of Residential Life

for Staffing and Student Programs

Robert C. Reff, PhDInterim Assistant Dean of

Students for Chemical Health & Outreach

Programming

Dan PedersenDirector of Residential Life

Who are we?

Jen Sell-MatzkeAssociate Director of Residential Life

for Staffing and Student Programs

Rob ReffInterim Assistant Dean of

Students for Chemical Health & Outreach Programming

Dan PedersenDirector Residence Life

A Few Things...

Open Source

www.stcloudstate.edu/uchoose

www.stcloudstate.edu/reslife

Questions Welcomed

St. Cloud State University

17,000 Students

86% from Minnesota

3,000 Students Live on Campus

80% of first year students live on

campus

How it all started...

New Administration

New Philosophy

Confluence of Events

Philosophy

Harm Reduction

Data Driven

Student Engaged

Best Practice

Collaborative

Enhance Current Efforts?

Resources

http://www.socialnorms.org/

http://www.higheredcenter.org/

Social Norms Theory

Define the theory of social norms...

Win a prize!!!

Misperception about behavior of

peers

Alcohol:Students believe that the quantity and frequency of

alcohol use is higher for peers than they actually are

What causes misperceptions?

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Animal House - 1978

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Old School - 2003

BaselineBaselineIdentify Identify Actual & Actual &

Perceived Perceived NormsNorms

InterventInterventionion

Intense Intense Exposure Exposure

to to Accurate Accurate NormsNorms

Expected ResultsExpected ResultsLess ExaggeratedPerception of Social Norms

Reduction of harmfulbehavior & increase in

healthy behaviors

Goals for Project

Gather accurate data about

student’s behavior

Test social norms theory for large

scale implementation

Collaborate between multiple

departments

Foster increased community among

residents

Residential Life Background

Sherburne Hall

Step 1: Collect Baseline

Collect Data

What would we find:

a) Students perceive others drinking

more than they areb) Students are drinking at high-

risk levels and they are accurately

perceiving the norm

What would we find:

a) Students perceive others drinking

more than they are

b) Students are drinking at high-risk levels and they are accurately perceiving the norm

Intervention

Norms Clarification

Other Interventions

Results

Time ran out on intervention

Small sample on post-test

Lessons Learned

Students take a lot of surveys

“This is what the students want...”

“I start work at 8am and the

students meet at 9pm”

Student Involvement

Modeling Behavior

Life Happens

Interesting Data

Next Steps...