On Campus
Recovery Housing at Rutgers an oasis for students struggling with substance abuse
Nearly 100 people celebrated the 25th anniversary of Rutgers’ pioneering alcohol and drug recovery programs this month
On his resume John, Rutgers College `93, looks like another solid, successful New Jersey guy. But ask about his life story, and he’ll say he owes it all to Rutgers Recovery Housing and a woman named Lisa Laitman.
John, 46, attempted college twice. His first try, after graduating from high school, was a disaster. His father had just died.
“I spent about a month drinking, went to class once or twice, and dropped out,” he said. He did a hitch in the Navy and then got a job – drinking all the while. After a series of blackouts, including one where he woke up nude under a blanket in a strange house, he signed himself into Fair Oaks Hospital in Summit, New Jersey, for treatment. “Drinking wasn’t fun any more,” he said.
By the fall of 1989, he was sober and readmitted to Rutgers, but scared about relapsing. “I told a dean, ‘I’m worried because I know people drink here. I might end up with a roommate who drinks,’” he said.
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The dean referred him to Lisa Laitman, director of Rutgers Alcohol and Other Drug Assistance Programs for Students. She admitted him to a special section of a dorm, where he was surrounded with students committed to staying clean and sober.
“She told me I would be able to live there as long as I stayed sober. This took a real weight off my shoulders. And it changed my life,” said John, who’s been sober ever since. He’s married, with a daughter and a career as a manager with a utility company.
On November 8 John, who asked that his real name not be used, joined Laitman and nearly 100 others at the New Brunswick Hyatt Regency for a reunion celebrating the 25th anniversary of Rutgers’ pioneering alcohol and drug recovery program. (Recovery Housing at Rutgers has been in existence for 20 years.) Most of the guests were alums like him. But some were current students, whose expenses were borne by a small portion of a new three-year, $720,000 grant from the Division of Addiction Services of the New Jersey Department of Human Services.
The grant will supplement existing programs in New Brunswick and Newark and fund a new drug prevention campaign, said Lea P. Stewart, a professor in the Department of Communication and director of the Center for Communication and Health Issues. It will also allow Rutgers to hire a “recovery counselor,” aiding staff in New Brunswick and Newark.
College is a complex social environment, and drug and alcohol abuse are embedded in the culture, according to Stewart, a grantee along with Laitman and Polly McLaughlin, a substance abuse specialist with the Counseling Center at Rutgers–Newark.
“We run the gamut from alcohol to heroin,” Stewart said. “College students are no different from anyone else in the population.”
Recovery Housing on the New Brunswick Campus accommodates 22 students; Newark has space for eight. Students accepted into the confidentially operated program must have been sober for a few months. The new counselor will provide them mentoring and academic support.
“This counselor will really help those in early recovery,” said Laitman, whose office gets about 800 new referrals every year. Many are students caught with a can of beer or arrested for DWI, but some are full-blown addicts requiring rehabilitation. “They’re balancing early recovery – which means that sometimes they’re more fragile and at more risk of relapse – with their role of student.”
At Rutgers–Newark McLaughlin, the only full-time alcohol and drug counselor, receives up to 150 referrals annually. Most of her work is geared toward early identification of addiction. The new counselor will help build a true community for students in recovery, she said.
“Students who are motivated, who come in after a relapse and have a hard time, but stick with it – they’re the ones you can help get better,” she said. “In many ways and in many times, it’s against all odds. I call them my heroes.”