About Us

Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, the Higher Education Center provides support to all institutions of higher education in their efforts to address the problems related to alcohol and other drug abuse and violence.

Through a variety of products and services, the Center works with colleges, universities, and proprietary schools nationwide to develop strategies for changing campus culture, to foster environments that promote healthy lifestyles, and to prevent high risk alcohol and other drug use and violence among students.

The Center's Primary Mission

The mission of the U.S. Department of Education’s Higher Education Center for Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Violence Prevention is to assist institutions of higher education in developing, implementing, and evaluating alcohol, other drug, and violence prevention policies and programs that will foster students’ academic and social development and promote campus and community safety.

The Center pursues this mission primarily through the use of prevention strategies that focus on environmental, educational, and information dissemination strategies. The Center’s clients include IHE faculty, administrators, and staff, and leaders from the surrounding community. While college students are the ultimate beneficiaries of our work, they are not our primary audience.

History and Authorization

The U.S. Department of Education established the Center in 1993, funding it through a series of competitively-awarded contracts. The Center was authorized by the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, Title IV - The Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act of 1994, Part A - State Grants for Drug and Violence Prevention Programs, Subpart 2 - National Programs, Section 4121(a) - Federal Activities, as amended.

Since 1995, the Center has been housed in and operated by the Center for College Health and Safety of the Health and Human Development Division of Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC) in Waltham, Massachusetts, an international non-profit organization with numerous programs to improve health and education both in the U.S. and globally. EDC won the contract to operate the Center in 1995, 1999, 2004, and 2009.

The Department's Philosophy of Prevention

In the past, institutions of higher education focused their prevention programs on education and intervention strategies that targeted the individual students. Typical of this approach are the general awareness programs for freshmen during orientation week, plus awareness weeks and other special events through the year. Harm reduction programs, which seek to minimize the damage that students do to themselves and others when using alcohol and other drugs, are another component of typical campus efforts.

These programs, while necessary and productive, were insufficient. Research shows that a broader approach is needed, one that seeks to change the social and cultural environment in which students make decisions about alcohol and other drug use and that uses multiple strategies. What students choose to do is shaped by campus social norms, the accessibility of alcohol and other drugs, the extent to which school policies and state laws are firmly enforced, and the availability of non-alcohol social options. All of these environmental factors are subject to influence through programs and policies at the campus community level. Prevention strategies that seek to systemically change the campus environment are more likely to create lasting change.

Therefore, a central feature of the Center's work is the promotion of multiple prevention strategies that affect the campus environment as a whole, and thereby can have a strong influence on the entire student body. The Center focuses on those prevention strategies which have not been traditionally used within the higher education community and which have large scale effect on the entire student body, campus environment, and campus AOD culture. This shift in thinking about prevention requires postsecondary administrators and educators to view their roles and responsibilities in new ways.