2013 NCAA Conventon

Social Norms and Legal Trends: Marijuana Use Among Student-Athletes

The session’s framework will include social norming of substance use in college students. A shift in which marijuana use is seen as more normal on college campuses could lead to greater acceptance and increased use in student-athletes. A second component of the session relates to the current and possible future legal status of marijuana. Many states have carved out medical exceptions for marijuana use or decriminalized simple possession and use. Associated with this is the topic of NCAA medical waivers for certain drugs. The session will also review research on the effects of marijuana on the athletic and academic performance of student-athletes.

Speakers:

Jennifer Buckman, Assistant Research Professor at the Center of Alcohol Studies, Rutgers,
The State University of New Jersey, Newark

Jennifer F. Buckman is an assistant research professor at the Center of Alcohol Studies, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Newark.  She received her Ph.D. in behavioral neuroscience from Oregon Health and Science University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in pharmacology at the University of Pittsburgh.  Her current research on college athletes involves studying their use of alcohol, other social/recreational drugs and performance-enhancing substances.  She is also interested in understanding the influence of binge drinking on risk for sports-related concussion and the utility of physiological feedback to intervene in high-risk substance-use behaviors.

David Clough, Professor and Faculty Athletics Representative, University of Colorado, Boulder

David Clough has been on the faculty at the University of Colorado, Boulder, since 1975 and has served as Colorado’s faculty athletics representative since March 2005.  He is a professor in the department of chemical and biological engineering at Colorado.  He served as associate dean for academic affairs of the College of Engineering and Applied Science from 1986 through 1992.  The field of automation and control of chemical and related processes has been the focus of his research and professional career.

Clough has been active in the Faculty Athletics Representatives Association as a member of the Executive Committee and is the current president of FARA.  In his time as faculty athletics representative, Clough has established a reputation for his expertise in the NCAA’s Academic Performance Program and that program’s statistics that track the progress of student-athletes, the Academic Progress Rate (APR) and the Graduation Success Rate (GSR).  He has developed tracking and predictive tools that have been shared with more than 100 NCAA institutions.

Clough received his bachelor’s degree from the Case Institute of Technology (now Case Western Reserve University) in 1968 and his master’s degree from Colorado in 1969, both in chemical engineering.  He worked as an engineer for E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Inc., from 1969 to 1972 before returning to Colorado to earn his doctorate in 1975.

Andrea A. Zevenbergen, Professor of Psychology and Faculty Athletics Representative, State University College at Fredonia

Andrea Zevenbergen is a professor of psychology at Fredonia State.  She serves as a Division III representative on the Faculty Athletics Representatives Association Executive Committee.  She has been the faculty athletics representative and chair of the Intercollegiate Athletic Board at Fredonia State since 2003, and served as the chair of the faculty athletics representatives in the State University of New York Athletic Conference in 2007-08 and 2010-11.  Her doctoral degree, from Stony Brook University, is in clinical psychology.  Zevenbergen was a student-athlete at Northwestern University, in cross country and track and field.