Before students began their freshman year at CSU Monterey Bay this fall, the university expected them to complete a homework assignment on a subject they won't get class credit for – alcohol.

During the summer, incoming students were required to spend about three hours completing a mandatory web-based course that deals with a variety of alcohol-related topics.

The course, called AlcoholEdu, is in its second year at CSUMB, but has been used for a decade at hundreds of campuses. Outside the Classroom, the Massachusetts company that developed it, says that about 36 percent of all freshmen at American four-year colleges and universities will take the course this year.

UC Berkeley, Stanford, UCLA, San Francisco State, Chico State and CSU Channel Islands are among the California schools that have adopted the program.

Indications are it has been successful at CSUMB.

The goal is to ensure that students have a base of information before they arrive on campus – when they are exposed to alcohol and behavior patterns get formed.

Students begin the program by taking a survey that measures their attitudes about, and knowledge of, alcohol. After completing the survey, the program walks them through a variety of topics including how alcohol impacts brain development and learning, factors that affect blood alcohol content and laws about alcohol.

The course is personalized to each student based on past drinking patterns, gender and perceptions about alcohol. They can log in and out of the program whenever they want and finish the course at their convenience.

Six weeks into the semester, students take the second part of the course. The interval allows them to digest what they have learned.

"Chico State saw a drop in alcohol-related cases referred to Judicial Affairs after AlcoholEdu was introduced," Andy Klingelhoefer, CSUMB's judicial affairs officer, said in 2010 when the program was first introduced.

He noted that CSUMB also saw a drop in alcohol-related cases last spring, and so far this year, he's seen an even bigger drop.

"The educational part of it gets students thinking about the issue by the time they arrive on campus," Klingelhoefer said. "Last year, 64 percent of freshmen said they didn't drink. That surprised other students. They assume their peers are drinking more than they really are. It's valuable information for them," he said.

Among last year's CSUMB freshmen, 23 percent indicated they were high-risk drinkers compared to 27 percent nationally.

After completing AlcoholEdu, students reported increases in positive behavior intentions. Among high-risk drinkers who did not see a need to change their drinking behavior before the course, 36 percent indicated a readiness to change their drinking after completing it.

Top reasons the students cite for not drinking: going to drive (71 percent); don't have to drink to have a good time (62 percent); don't want to lose control (51 percent).

Students who fail to complete the course before arrival will get reminder notices; those who still don't comply will not be allowed to register for the spring semester until they do.

As another way to address the issue, CSUMB is scheduling more alcohol-free activities, Klingelhoefer said.

All events put on by the Associated Students, the Otter Student Union, clubs and organizations are alcohol free. The Black Box Cabaret hosted 68 events last year attended by more than 10,000 students where no alcohol was available.

College drinking isn't new. It has been a sore point in American college history as far back as the days of Thomas Jefferson, who complained about it at the University of Virginia, Henry Wechsler, director of the College Alcohol Study at the Harvard School of Public Health, told the San Francisco Chronicle.