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That’s the year Mary Torstveit started as the alcohol education coordinator at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. With little research to depend on, she was one of a handful of people with the first wave of federal money for college prevention programs.
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Now that former UW-La Crosse alcohol education and prevention coordinator Mary Torstveit is retired she has more time for hobbies like gardening.
PETER THOMSON photo |
Over the past two decades, she created the peer education program Reach and Share. She convinced instructors to infuse the topic into their curriculum. She developed innovative ways — like the posters of facts, called the Stall Street Journals, taped to the doors of toilet stalls — to spread accurate information about alcohol.
“For La Crosse, I think it would be fair to say she was the pioneer,” said Jon Hageseth, UW-L’s director of counseling and testing. “She set a lot of things in motion that I think will endure over time.”
Twenty years later, prevention programs have changed. It can’t be just education, Torstveit said last week. It includes meetings with police, examining city and campus policies, bartender training.
In short, everything that’s going on in La Crosse now. So for Torstveit, 63, it’s the perfect time for a new messenger. She retired last month.
She hadn’t planned on a career in alcohol education. She taught after earning a degree in biology and English. But after writing curriculum for a drug abuse program in the 1970s, she pursued a master’s degree in counseling before landing the “greatest job in the world” at UW-L.
Torstveit convinced senior-level administrators to pay attention to excessive drinking, said Mick Miyamoto, assistant dean of students at UW-L. About 1,400 college students annually die in the United States due to alcohol-related reasons.
“She’s shown a lot of courage over the years, saying, ‘We need to talk about this,’ not, ‘Wink, wink, let’s talk about the old war stories,’ ” Miyamoto said.
With eight college-age men drowning in local rivers since 1997, La Crosse is acutely aware of the consequences of excessive alcohol consumption.
While he knows UW-L has its share of problems when it comes to alcohol, it was hurtful to hear media and residents say the school wasn’t educating students about it, Miyamoto said. “You’re talking about someone who fought the fight,” he said of Torstveit.
A lesser person would have accepted excessive alcohol consumption as a given on campus and say their efforts weren’t working, said Cary Heyer, director of university relations at UW-L. Torstveit never did, he added.
“You didn’t need an incident to spur Mary T on,” former UW-L Chancellor Doug Hastad said. “She grasped the importance of doing whatever it took to educate students about responsible drinking.”
While they initially caused the campus and community to blame each other, the tragedies forced action and kept the issue at the forefront, Torstveit said.
One of the first efforts — a campus-community coalition started in 1997 — fizzled after two years. But it led to a willingness to examine the issue, said La Crosse Assistant Police Chief Tom Jacobs.
“She is someone I would want in my corner, if I was a student or just a member of the community,” said Jacobs, who worked with Torstveit to secure a $250,000 grant that funded the program. “She brings so much to the table.”
As more people got involved, pieces fell into place. New task forces formed. Legislation like keg registration, sober server and public intoxication was passed. Students, with the help of the police department, have started a patrol program in Riverside Park weekend nights.
While alcohol education will always be an uphill battle and there will always be work to do, Torstveit is thrilled at the city’s progress. Knowing she contributed to that is the most rewarding part of her career.
“Even if we don’t have all the problems solved, we can look at this and say, ‘This is success,’ ” she said. “We still have work to do but we have done very well.”
While she insists numerous others helped get the community to where it’s at — other campus departments and administrators, the task forces, community agencies and people and local media — those who work with her say Torstveit is just being modest.
“She made it very clear to students that excessive alcohol consumption and chemical addiction was an issue to be taken very seriously,” Heyer said. “Her legacy is there isn’t a single student who has attended UW-L who can’t say they haven’t heard repeatedly that excessive drinking is not good.”
“She doesn’t make long speeches, she doesn’t make it a huge deal,” agreed Rose Mary Boesen, executive director of the Great Rivers United Way and co-chair of the city’s Alcohol Oversight Committee. “She makes it a fact: This is something we need to work at and this is why.”
Friends described her as an “unsung hero,” a quiet leader content to work behind the scenes. She’s a creative, social person with a great sense of humor who connected with students, several said.
“She could relate to students on any level,” said David Krantz, a recent UW-L graduate who was involved with Reach and Share. “To see so much fire and passion and drive in someone on a topic not many people want to touch was refreshing.”
While she knows she’ll miss the work, Torstveit is enjoying retirement. She has joined the United Way board, is taking a computer class and spends time gardening. She plans on traveling, seeing family and reconnecting with friends, and has embraced not having to be somewhere at 8 a.m. every day.
“I think being retired is just great,” she said. “I’m having a ball.”
Kate Schott can be reached at kschott@lacrossetribune.com or (608) 791-8226.
