Carnegie Mellon Tartans Participate in APPLE Conference

Jan. 26 - (PITTSBURGH) - On the weekend of January 19-21, a team of Carnegie Mellon administrators and student-athletes attended the APPLE Conference at the University of Virginia to discuss educational procedures about alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs. Participating in the event were Associate Athletic Director Joan Maser, head volleyball coach Kim Kelly, athletic trainer Chris Rose, Director of Student Life Renee Camerlengo, Travis Sivek of the football team and Laura Steidel of the women’s soccer team.

The APPLE Conference offers teams of student-athletes, coaches, athletic trainers, administrators, and alcohol, tobacco and other drug (ATOD) prevention specialists an opportunity to evaluate the ATOD environment within their athletics departments, and to develop a specific action plan to enhance prevention efforts.

The APPLE project was developed jointly by the Institute for Substance Abuse Studies (now known as the Center for Alcohol and Substance Education) and the Department of Athletics at the University of Virginia. The conferences have been funded by a grant from the NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports since 1991. The APPLE model is built on the belief that all members of an athletics department must be enfranchised and empowered to help create an environment that promotes healthy lifestyles, including responsible use of alcohol for those of legal age and avoidance of illegal and performance-enhancing drugs. The formal components -- policies, regulations, enforcement procedures and consequences of infractions -- are the necessary foundation on which to build prevention efforts. But these efforts can only be successful if the informal components -- recruitment messages, role models, and unwritten expectations -- reflect and extend the message that substance abuse prevention is a departmental priority and is everyone’s concern.

The goal of the APPLE Conference was to educate, empower and support participant teams in understanding, evaluating and enhancing the environments within their athletics departments in regard to alcohol and other drug abuse prevention.

During the conference the representatives from Carnegie Mellon worked in groups with other university participants from around the nation to discuss approaches to building a better environment for student-athletes and the athletics department. Some topics of discussion, also known as apple slices, were recruitment policies, expectations and attitudes of athletes and coaches, policies for athletes to adhere to, education opportunities, drug testing, sanctions, and referral and counseling.

When asked about the experience of attending the conference Steidel commented, "I would definitely say the Apple Conference was very beneficial in generating new ideas and policies that we can implement into our athletic program. We were able to evaluate where we are as an athletic board and ask questions about how we can move forward. It was interesting to see what other schools are doing, what obstacles they face and what things have worked for them. I'm excited to continue work with the committee to see what can happen from the ideas we believe can be beneficial to our school."

Sivek added, "The conference offered many strategies aimed at promoting healthy lifestyles for student-athletes. Over the next year we will be able to make great strides toward a healthier athletic community. It was really encouraging to see how some other schools have utilized the ideas from their previous visits to the conference in a positive way. The key to any success, as emphasized at the conference, will be a continuous and focused effort. I think we have the building blocks in place to be just as successful as any other university who has attended the conference."