Pathways 2 Prevention
Creating a Culture Shift in Campus Drinking
1 hr 7 min
Guests: Kate Lower, Keyra Palacios
Listen on SpotifySummary
This episode explores how to create a culture shift in campus drinking, moving beyond individual choices to focus on environment and harm reduction. Host Dave Closson, alongside guests Kate Lower and Keyra Palacios, discusses practical approaches to prevention, emphasizing student experience and environmental strategies. They delve into why culture change is more effective than slogans and how campus environments shape norms.
Key takeaways
- Culture change, not just slogans, is key to effective prevention efforts for campus drinking.
- Campus and game day environments significantly influence student norms and expectations regarding alcohol.
- Harm reduction strategies, like bringing a first aid kit to a party, can be practical on-the-ground prevention measures.
- Understanding diverse student perspectives, even from non-public health majors, is valuable in prevention work.
- Effective health communication is challenging due to competing incentives among students and stakeholders.
Show notes
College drinking is often treated like an individual choice problem, “students just need to make better decisions.”
In this episode, we zoom out and look at the bigger lever: culture and environment. Host Dave Closson is joined by Kate Lower (SHIFT, University of Texas at Austin) and Keyra Palacios (UT Austin student & SHIFT Maker) for a practical conversation about what prevention looks like when you center student experience, take environmental strategies seriously, and bring a harm reduction mindset into real campus life.
You’ll hear:
- What SHIFT is (in plain language), and why culture change beats slogans
- How campus and “game day” environments shape norms and expectations
- Why “preventable measures” matter, and what they look like on the ground
- Keyra’s perspective as an economics major (not a public health major) doing prevention work
- A real-world story that captures the SHIFT mindset: bringing a first-aid kit to a party
- Why health communication is hard, especially when students and powerful stakeholders have competing incentives
- Takeaways for prevention leaders, campuses, and studentsVisit: https://shift.utexas.edu/
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