The symposium will feature local and national experts discussing the prevalence of drinking on college campuses, short-term and long-term outcomes for students who drink, and challenges and opportunities in the prevention and treatment of college drinking problems.

Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton will make introductory remarks at the symposium, which will be held from 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.

The Missouri Alcoholism Research Center (MARC) is hosting the symposium. Created by a grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) at the National Institutes of Health, the MARC is one of 15 NIH-funded Alcoholism Research Centers. It currently is the only center whose primary focus is understanding the causes of adolescent alcohol problems.

The MARC is housed in the Washington University School of Medicine, but the center also involves research from Saint Louis University, the University of Missouri-Columbia, the Veterans Administration in St. Louis and in Palo Alto, Calif., and the Queensland Institute for Medical Research in Brisbane, Australia.

"We know that adults who develop alcohol problems tend to date the beginnings of those problems to their high school and college years," said Andrew C. Heath, Ph.D., MARC director and the Spencer T. Olin Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry. "That's why we are focusing on young drinkers and inviting experts from around the United States to share their expertise on those who might be at risk and the patterns that emerge among college-age drinkers."

The Guze symposium was established to honor the late Samuel B. Guze, M.D. Guze was a pioneer of the medical model of psychiatric illness and in the field of alcoholism research. His early studies of alcohol use and abuse were important in the movement to consider alcoholism a disease rather than a character flaw.

Guze joined the School of Medicine faculty in 1951 and later served as vice chancellor for medical affairs and president of the Washington University Medical Center from 1971-1989. He also served as head of the Department of Psychiatry from 1971-1989 and again from 1993-97. Guze was highly respected as a researcher, an administrator and a leader in the field of psychiatry.

The symposium is intended for physicians, psychologists, social workers, university and school administrators and others concerned with college-age drinking. Participants may receive continuing medical education credits for attendance. The program is sponsored by the office of Continuing Medical Education in the School of Medicine and supported with major funding from Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc.