About The Maryland Collaborative

Our Mission

The Maryland Collaborative seeks to reduce excessive college drinking and resulting social and economic costs by raising awareness of college student drinking as a statewide public health problem and by helping college communities implement effective policies and practices to reduce the problem.

About Us

The Maryland Collaborative is a network of Maryland colleges and universities working together with community partners to reduce excessive alcohol use in their campus communities. Using data-driven approaches, the Collaborative engages partners to create environments, policies and practices that help our students make healthy decisions, succeed in college and become productive members of their respective communities.

Why a Statewide Collaborative to Reduce College Drinking? Simply put, excessive college drinking results in enormous social and economic costs for students, their families, friends, and the community at-large. We recognize that this is not the colleges’ problem alone but rather one shared across our society. As such it requires thoughtful and research-based solutions that can be applied to each campus in unique ways through local and statewide partnerships.

History & Governance

Maryland Collaborative to Reduce College Drinking and Related Problems began in 2012 with funding from the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Today the Collaborative is led by a Governance Council made up of our member college and university presidents and administered by faculty and staff at the University of Maryland School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Administrators of member schools provide guidance and peer support in the Campus Council and work alongside community members in the Campus Community Task Force to address alcohol-related problems off-campus. Faculty and staff at the University of Maryland School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health support them all.

Since its inception, Maryland Collaborative schools and their community partners have led successful efforts to implement evidence-based strategies to reduce excessive college drinking in Maryland. Successes include new local ordinances that deter loud and unruly off-campus parties where excessive drinking often occur, statewide laws that ban the sale of dangerous products, and increased enforcement that led to the closing or suspension of problem bars. The Maryland Collaborative has also worked with schools to implement stronger systems for screening and intervention for at-risk students and created an annual student survey to measure progress toward its goals.

The Maryland Collaborative staff provide ongoing technical assistance and support to the Member schools. Many Maryland Collaborative resources, however, are available to other colleges and universities as well. These resources include the College Parents Matter website, the Guide to Best Practices and an array of fact sheets, research briefs, and infographics.