In the midst of Alcohol Awareness Week ’98, Iowa State is conducting a survey to uncover some of the myths and realities of alcohol use and abuse among students.

The survey, being conducted by the Student Health Center with supervision from the Substance Abuse Issues Committee, comes on the heels of a similar study released this fall by Henry Wechsler at Harvard University.

“The Harvard survey randomly selected schools from around the country to study. We weren’t one of those selected, but we still wanted the information about Iowa State,” said Randy Mayer, interim supervisor of prevention for Education and Outreach Services.

The study was prompted by Alan Berkowitz, a nationally recognized alcohol prevention researcher, last year when he visited ISU.

“We realized that there were factors contributing to alcohol use at Iowa State that we didn’t fully understand, and we hoped that this survey would clarify some of those issues,” said Dave Haden, co-chairman of the Substance Abuse Issues Committee.

It was not until this fall, however, that funding was acquired to perform the study.

Students were randomly selected for participation in the telephone survey. Of the 600 participants, 200 live in the residence halls, 200 live off campus and 200 live in greek housing.

“Several weeks ago, we sent letters to all those selected so that they will be expecting our calls,” Mayer said. “We hope to get very high participation — at least 85 percent — to really know what’s going on.”

The survey’s telephone format is new to ISU.

“I think that they will get a lot better response from students who were called,” said Nathan Linquist, sophomore in computer engineering. “It really seems like a good way to find out how many students are actually drinking here at Iowa State.”

The survey will cover three areas in which alcohol affects students’ lives. Questions will deal with perceptions of alcohol use on campus, how students have been affected by others’ alcohol use and participants’ own alcohol use.

All responses will be kept confidential and used only for the study.

“We want to be able to see how bad the problem really is at Iowa State and then tailor a program of alcohol abuse prevention to Iowa State,” Haden said.

Haden said his staff plans to share the results with students and faculty.

“Hopefully, we can develop some educational programming and curriculum infusion to address the problems that we have here,” he said.

This type of research has been done for nearly a decade, he said. Haden said this survey is much more comprehensive and statistically valid and will hopefully give credibility to previous studies.

“We expect results back to us by Jan. 1, but it will take a few months of review before the report is published,” Mayer said.

The committee started conducting the survey last Monday, and the data should be gathered within three weeks.

Students are divided on the issue of alcohol abuse at ISU.

“I don’t think alcohol abuse is any worse at Iowa State than it is on any other campus,” said Kate Nelson, freshman in horticulture. “Ames’ law enforcement is also very effective in keeping underage drinking down.”

Other students see alcohol use as a bigger problem.

“There is definitely that element here at Iowa State. It’s unfortunate, but on a college campus, I’m not sure that it’s something that can be totally avoided,” said Jaime Tokheim, an undecided freshman.