Most of the colleges and universities that have received U.S. Department of Education Models of Exemplary, Effective, and Promising Alcohol or Other Drug Abuse Prevention Programs on College Campuses grants credit strong presidential leadership for the success of their prevention efforts. With many colleges and universities currently facing budget crises, cutting classes, and reducing faculty sizes, getting a president's attention on alcohol, drug abuse, and violence prevention can be a real challenge. But presidential support is now even more important if colleges and universities are to make headway in implementing evidence-based prevention strategies. While no research studies have been conducted on the role of presidential leadership in mounting effective prevention efforts "per se," experiences from colleges and universities across the country led the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism's Task Force on College Drinking to state that "although research can provide useful guidance to colleges and universities in addressing the consequences of high-risk student drinking, presidential leadership is crucial to set plans in motion and support the actions needed to reverse the culture of drinking on campus." "Presidential leadership (both at individual colleges and in national higher education) is necessary to focus attention on college drinking and raise it higher on college and higher education agendas. The associations that make up the Washington Higher Education Secretariat should take a fresh look at this issue and not just let a few such as NASPA and NCAA do all the heavy lifting. College drinking is a problem for all of higher education." (George W. Dowdall, professor of sociology at Saint Joseph's University, Philadelphia, and the author of "College Drinking: Reframing a Social Problem" [Praeger, 2009]).