March 14, 2007
Written by Cory Chandler
The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University will release
Thursday (March 15) findings from a new report detailing alcohol, prescription and
illegal drug abuse among America’s full-time college students.
Kitty Harris, Ph.D., director of Texas Tech University’s Center for the Study of Addiction
and Recovery, can speak about efforts underway to provide supportive communities for
college students in drug and alcohol recovery.
Higher education increasingly relies on peer-based recovery programs like the one
pioneered at Texas Tech to battle student substance abuse and attrition rates.
Harris has overseen or advised the development of recovery communities at schools
such as the University of Colorado at Boulder, the University of Texas and the University
of Texas at San Antonio and created a curriculum model that is being distributed nationally.
Texas Tech's nationally recognized recovery community is the largest and one of the
oldest of its kind in the nation. It currently offers recovery and educational assistance
to nearly 100 students from some 20 states who have overcome drug addictions and eating
disorders.
During the past 20 years, more than 500 students – around 70 percent – have graduated
through the program with only seven percent of active participants suffering relapses.
The national percentage is closer to 50 percent, center administrators say. The students’
collective GPA is a 3.34.
Harris also has expanded the program’s scope to include research initiatives to better
understand the processes and factors involved in young adult recovery. Through this
work, the center has the potential to impact national perspective and policy concerning
methods of recovery support including: social networking, family involvement and relapse
prevention.
Contact: Kitty Harris, director, Center for the Study of Addiction and Recovery, Texas
Tech University, can be reached by cell phone at (806) 239-1009, (806) 742-2891, or
kitty.harris@ttu.edu.