Miami Herald (MH) - Wednesday, August 14, 1991
Lourdes Fernandez; Herald Staff Writer

Orientation programs at colleges and universities are no longer limited to the routine campus tour and recitation of school clubs.

Almost as soon as they arrive on campus later this month, new students will learn about alcohol and drug abuse, acquaintance rape, race relations, nutrition, even balancing checkbooks.

One of the more delicate subjects, date rape, is a new one at many campuses. It became part of orientation programs at UM and Florida International University last summer.

"I thought it was worthwhile," said 18-year-old Robbie Ramsay, now beginning his sophomore year at UM. Most revealing, Ramsay said, were the examples the university gave of real incidents on campus.

Though UM reports only one or two sexual assaults each year -- fewer than most other local colleges -- it urges students to be vigilant.

"We felt it really important we touch on that topic because it's an important issue," said Karen Melino, UM's director of student development and orientation services. "Students need to know from the start."

Students are shown a film, followed by a discussion, during the 30-minute session. They are given brochures reinforcing what they've learned -- that no means no, and that most campus rapes are committed by acquaintances, not strangers.

At FIU, counselors talk about date rape after covering alcohol and drug abuse -- because many times the two problems are connected, said Alex Azan, a college counselor who gives the sessions.

Another 50-minute seminar emphasizes one point: That two in every 1,000 college students are carrying the HIV virus.

"We stress that there is no such thing as a group at risk," Azan said. "We are all at risk."

University administrators say they hold these discussions at the outset both to educate students and to make sure they understand school policies.

The move to talk about once-taboo subjects swept university campuses across the country in the mid to late 1980s, said John Gardner, author of two books for freshmen and director of a University of South Carolina course for new students.

"We have a lot of naive, unsuspecting students who come to college," Gardner said. "They've been sheltered, many of them."

That -- along with new freedoms, privacy, peer pressure and ignorance -- can often lead to trouble, he said. The cases of sexually transmitted disease are rising, more students are reporting incidents of acquaintance rape, and racism seems to be spreading on campuses.

This year, UM is expanding a 15-minute presentation on cultural and ethnic differences to a half-hour, said orientation director Melino.

The video's message: "Talk to people who are not like you, open your mind," Melino said.

And that, say administrators, is one of the great lessons of college life.

Said Gardner: "We're trying to let students know immediately that their values will be challenged."
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