More sober living programs popping up on campuses
“It was a safe space with people who were trying to do what I was trying to do,” said Ryan, 25, who asked to be identified only by his first name to protect his privacy. “No one was talking about going out and getting drunk. It was the antithesis of my previous dorm experiences, where the shackles are off and people go crazy.”
The nation’s opioid epidemic is focusing new attention on a strategy Rutgers pioneered in 1988. Last year, Gov. Chris Christie signed a law that requires every state-run college and university in New Jersey to offer sober housing if at least a quarter of its students live on campus. The law gives schools four years to comply, but the College of New Jersey was already preparing to open a sober dorm, which it did last fall. Elsewhere, Texas Tech opened substance-free housing in 2011. Oregon State University will offer such accommodations this coming school year.
Sober dorms are a “major new development in the recovery movement. They’re unique because they get to the heart of the beast,” said Robert DuPont, a psychiatrist who specializes in drug abuse. DuPont, who heads the Institute for Behavior and Health, a drug policy think tank based in Rockville, Md., served as the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse from 1973 to 1978.