First weeks risky for new college students

The latest edition of the “Higher Education Update,” circulated by the NCHERM Group, a leading consulting group working with colleges on handling campus sexual assault and Title IX issues, reports that the first few weeks on campus are the most risky for new college students.

It says that “anecdotal evidence suggests that the first six weeks of the academic year are critical to both the academic and social success of first-year students,”

Those first few weeks, the report says, present the potential for high-risk alcohol consumption, drug use, hazing, and behaviors contrary to successful assimilation into college life.

And the National Institute of Justice, says that the first few months of the school year are the highest-risk time for sexual assault. Last year Inside Higher Education reported that in the he first few weeks of the 2014 academic year, at least eight first-year students at U.S. colleges died due to alcohol-related incidents.

This story was originally published September 18, 2015 at 3:12 PM with the headline "First weeks risky for new college students."