Roundtable Discussion: Schools shared accomplishments and what worked well this past academic year.

Dane Foust, V.P. for Student Affairs at Salisbury University (SU) shared progress they have made in terms of relationships with local bars. The SU Town Gown Council (comprised of major community leaders, city officials, business representatives, and SU representatives) has allowed them to leverage partnerships with members to address problem bars.

·      Salisbury president and cabinet members (Dane, chief of staff and vice president of finance) meet quarterly with the local police agencies, state police, county sheriff’s office, EMS, fire department, and state’s attorney. This effort helped to address a bar that wasn’t consistently checking IDs and was serving underage students.

Take aways:
§  Stay connected with local bars and encourage conversation.
§  Find community allies (e.g., Community Partners, Chamber of Commerce, Police, State’s Attorney).

Q. How did SU nurture relationship with local police agencies, community leaders, and businesses?  
They deal with crime but also try to make sure that the spin of the group can be very positive. Also talking about cultural events on campus. Broad purpose – opportunities and ways to highlight positive things.

Q. Do other campuses have Town Gown committees or organizations? 
University of Maryland College Park and City of College Park have something similar to Town Gown – City Multi Agency Services Team – that deals with crime. They have a new team member who will participate in meetings moving forward and are hoping they might be able to move the needle so that it has more of a broader Town Gown approach.

Danielle Lico, Executive Director of Campus Wellness at St. John’s University shared steps they have taken to engage parents this year. Historically, St. John’s hasn’t done much parent engagement or training for Resident Assistants (RAs). They recently enhanced training to RAs. Before that the training, RAs took the students’ name and passed them along to a professional staff member for follow-up. Using MD-CAS data and help from Kelsey, St John’s changed the narrative of how they engage internally with students on campus.

·      MD Collaborative staff conducted a training for faculty and staff to talk about link between substance use and mental health and ties back to retention. Retention is especially important because St. John’s does not accept transfer students. Training was really helpful because it helped participants understand that a lot of the things they thought were true were not true related to permissive parenting.

·      Last summer and again last week, the Maryland Collaborative staff conducted a training for parent orientation that incorporated a new segment on substance abuse and mental health. 20 parents came (20 percent of freshman class) plus those who will review the recording.

Take aways:
§  Support of St. John’s President has been key. It has allowed them to change polices and general assumptions across campus related to drinking.

Q: How were they able to get people to the room?
MD-CAS data collected around parental permissiveness provided substantial assistance. Additionally, the Dean attended the training offered by Maryland Collaborative staff and was persuaded by the data to change how he viewed the issue.

Q: How many schools offer a parent orientation?
·    At naval academy, they do a brief parental orientation. Looking to build it up. Were asked to offer training on mental health. Likely to do one on alcohol.

·    UMD has a general parent orientation presentation, but it includes only a few minutes to talk about health center   issues or substance-related topics.

·    Towson offers a parent orientation.

·    JHU provides the Family Handbook for Talking to College Students About Alcohol by Rob Turisi as a resource guide (something tangible) for parents and it has been well received.

·    Notre Dame offers a parent orientation They are just starting a Parent & Family Engagement program.

·    McDaniel is starting up a parent orientation again They also have a monthly newsletter and have included references to the College Parents Matter website from the collaborative.

·    Frostburg’s parent piece is built out more on the website and has some FAQs and other resources; but this has given them a lot of helpful insight to try to work closely with admission directly. Student Affairs has more information built in during orientation.

·    Salisbury University has a daylong family member orientation. They have a half hour session to talk about safety and that includes some time devoted to substance use. They also have a concurrent parent orientation with new student orientation – like most campuses. They have a newsletter and monthly parent webinars on various topics. They also have a family member website with news and information (CampusESP).

·    Loyola University has a new online platform through Campus ESP to engage with parents. Part of their outreach efforts includes news and information on how to partner to address student behaviors.

·    Bowie State University has a general parent orientation. This summer they want to revamp their website and include information for parents.

Other Discussion
McDaniel: There is a former West Minister police officer that joined the liquor board. When the Maryland Collaborative was planning the spring bar training, Michael reached out to this person who runs a listserve for all business owners in Carroll County. They then organized a separate training for local bar owners.

Naval Academy: The Naval Academy is hiring a prevention staffer – https://www.usajobs.gov/job/795414900. Please share with your networks.

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