Truman State University Partners in Prevention
2025- 2026 Strategic Plan
Priority Area 1: Expanding Safer Drinking Practices Across the Board
Goal 1: Implement plans to reinvigorate and expand CHEERS programming with students and local establishments to include at least 4 of 5 downtown bars and the top 5 alcohol serving restaurants frequented by students.
- Strategy 1: Make contact with the five downtown bars and the top five alcohol serving restaurants frequented by students to re-engage them in the CHEERS program, commit to training their staff on CHEERS, and display CHEERS materials.
- Strategy 2: Host a fall photobooth with a large picture frame, steering wheel, and messaging on “I care about my friends, so I won’t drink or consume and then drive,” and distribute CHEERS materials.
- Strategy 3: 4-week education program via posters, the campus Truman Today newsletter, social media, and other mechanisms on the harms of intoxicated driving.
Goal 2: Reduce the discrepancy between perception and reality drinking levels among student athletes and FSL students, so perception is no more than 1.5 times reality levels in both groups.
- Strategy 1: FSL will expand its party safer promotions and utilize 2024-25 MACHB data to educate on the perception versus reality drinking levels of FSL members.
- Strategy 2: SAAC will expand its party safer promotions and utilize 2024-25 MACHB data to educate on the perception versus reality drinking levels of student athletes.
- Strategy 3: MOPIP will create “good luck” cards for each student athlete, wishing them well on their season and educating them to recognize the perception versus reality drinking levels and resources available to them.
Goal 3: Reduce campus underage binge drinking rates by at least 2 points.
- Strategy 1: The MOPIP student assistant will work to create a Fall 2025 engagement activity with students, with the objectives being that students know the definition of binge drinking, the risks associated with binge drinking, and practices to not drink/drink more safely in social settings.
- Strategy 2: Provide information on “don’t drink like a kid” that encourages responsible, adult (non-binge) drinking levels at the first three football tailgates and one other event that are risky for binge drinking.
- Strategy 3: Encourage students to attend alternative Thursday/Friday night programs, including two “Truman Night Tours” and one “Truman Ghost Tours” in partnership with Citizenship and Conduct, Student Engagement, and RHA in Fall 2025.
Goal 4: Implement an informational campaign on Truman’s female binge drinking rates being above state averages so that the binge drinking (females) rate drops at least 3 points.
- Strategy 1: Identify 10 student organizations (in addition to social sororities) with high female populations, meet with presidents to share the concerns and risks, and create slides to use in upcoming meetings about the concerns.
- Strategy 2: Partner with the Women’s Resource Center to create an informational campaign for all Truman students that explains the discrepancy in female binge drinking rates, shares the risks, and encourages safer drinking practices.
- Strategy 3: Provide information on female binge drinking rates to counselors, nurses, and other staff at Student Health Center and University Counseling Services so they are aware and can inquire of female clients about concerning drinking.
Goal 5: Implement an informational campaign on the risks of poly-use of alcohol with marijuana and prescription drugs so that the rate of poly-use with marijuana drops by at least 3 points, prescription drugs with prescription by at least 0.5 points, and prescription drugs without prescription by at least 0.5 points.
- Strategy 1: The Student Health Center will table with Phi Epsilon Kappa on the definition and dangers of poly-use.
- Strategy 2: Flyers placed in all student organization mailboxes on the definition and dangers of poly-use, with a note addressed to the organization’s risk management officer. The flyer will include a QR code to slides that can be inserted into an organization’s meeting.
Priority Area 2: Equipping Students to Combat Stress
Goal 1: Engage students in positive sleep hygiene behaviors so that the rate of chronic sleep issues drops by 3 points.
- Strategy 1: Create table tents for residence hall public spaces that explain the benefits of regular sleep and encourage students to exercise good sleep hygiene.
- Strategy 2: Create “time for sleep” cards that RAs can pass out on late building rounds that encourage people to get to bed and be better at tackling the project/homework in the morning. The card can also ask students, “What is one thing you can do tomorrow so you don’t have to pull an all-nighter later in the week?” and identify the “all-nighter” as one college tradition not worth keeping around.
- Strategy 3: Host a tabling event where students write down their barriers to better sleep, wad them up, and place them into a pillow case. Students will then be handed a “time for sleep” card to educate them on better sleep hygiene.
- Strategy 4: Working with a health science capstone project, Student Engagement will host the third annual Pajama Day event to educate on healthy sleep, followed by a bedtime story hour with President Sue Thomas and others.
Goal 2: Promote mental health wellness strategies and increase awareness of campus mental health resources so that the rate of students experiencing anxiety and depression drops by 3 points each.
- Strategy 1: Student Engagement will host a Play-Doh and Anxiety event aimed at anxiety reduction, mindfulness strategies, and coping strategy development.
- Strategy 2: University Counseling Services will create a public information campaign designed to inform students about best practices for reducing the incidence of anxiety and depression, showcasing the ease of using UCS services to work through anxiety and depression, and how to recommend services to a friend.
Priority Area 3: Deepening Violence Reduction Skillsets in Students
Goal: Sustain current momentum with ENGAGE trainings on campus and implement an informational campaign on violence prevention and NCSC prevention so that the rate of abusive relationships within the past year drops by 0.5 points.
- Strategy 1: Health Science and the Office of Community Enrichment will continue current efforts with ENGAGE, and each will look to bring in one new group for the training this year.
- Strategy 2: The Health Science capstone project will design and implement an information campaign around the concept that most Truman students would want someone to help them if they were about to be harmed by someone else.
Priority Area 4: Inventory Existing Wellness Initiatives
Goal: Create a calendar of existing wellness initiatives campus-wide and examine it for gaps that need coverage in the future to comprehensively address wellness education each year. This should include academic and extracurricular projects.
- Strategy 1: Record cooperative programs with MOPIP for the year and list them in the wellness implementation calendar.
- Strategy 2: Reach out to academic colleagues, student life departments, and student organizations to see what they are doing that may not be known or recorded by MOPIP each year. Effective, annual programs can be added to the wellness implementation calendar.