David Susina . . . Concern for students
Biographical sketch of David Susina. This and other articles may be found in the University Archives.The citation for this article is: "David Susina . . . Concern for students," Pieces of Eight, March 15, 1989.
Mild-mannered David Susina, a guidance counselor with a calm, easy-going peronality, is the director of a new Substance Abuse Program for ECU students established in the Division of Student Life.The program began in January with a $139,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education and will focus on prevention and education rather than enforcement. A 14-member committee of faculty, staff and community agencies wrote the proposal, a 42-page document, which was the sixth largest of 300 such grants awarded nationwide.
Under Susina's direction, efforts will be made to make students aware of the pitfalls of abusing alcohol and the dangers of cocaine and its derivative, crack. Susina says his approach will be one of genuine sincerity and concern, tempered with realistic expectations.
Work at Counselor Level
"I was trained as a counselor and my interest is at the counselor level," Susina says. "I'm interested in doing what I can do as a counselor to help the individuals.""We feel like people have a background of use of substances by the time they come to college," he says. "We want to work with students to help them make good and responsible decisions if they choose to use alcohol or drugs."
A native of Birmingham, Alabama, Susina grew up in a home where the subject of drugs was more than casually discussed. Both parents are pharmacists and his father is associate dean of the School of Pharmacy at Samford University.
Susina earned the BA degree in psychology at Samford and a master's degree in counseling at Indiana Univeristy. At both schools, he worked as a counselor for residence life programs and coordinated alcohol abuse prevention campaigns in the dormitories.
Experienced in the Field
As a residence hall director at Georgia Southern College, Susina continued to plan and manage alcohol awareness programs. "I don't mean to imply that residence halls are more of a problem for alcohol abuse than anywhere else," he says, "but they provide a concentrated area where students can be reached and addressed." He came to ECU as a residence hall director and counselor in 1982. For the past several years, he has coordinated Alcohol Awareness Week, an annual event to focus attention on problems of substance abuse. He serves on the Alcohol and Drug Education Committee which makes policy recommendations on use of alcohol and drugs.
Susina plans to work closely with student groups such as BACCHUS, an organization which promotes responsible drinking. He wants to establish groups such as Students Against Drunk Driving (SADD) and campus chapters of other alcohol awareness organizations.
The program will also conduct workshops, coordinate national alcohol and drug awareness programs and provide referrals for persons with problems. A resource library will be developed. Many of the activities will center on the residence halls and orientation programs.
"We really want to stress the prevention and education aspect of substance abuse because it helps people make rational decisions on whether or not to use alcohol or drugs," Susina said.
"With all of the enforcement that we can come up with we will still have students who will use and abuse some drugs. We want to continue our education so that if we are going to have people who use drugs, they will know about them and how it will affect them."
