Bytes

Preventing substance abuse in a virtual world.
Playing online can be fun, but in a groundbreaking research project, social work Professor Richard Schoech plans to determine whether virtual communities can also help prevent social problems.

Thanks to a $788,534, three-year grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce, Dr. Schoech and the Holmes Street Foundation, a drug treatment agency in South Dallas, will test if substance abuse prevention strategies can be moved from the physical community to the virtual one.

Researchers will use streaming audio and video, chat rooms, bulletin boards, list serves, Web pages and e-mail to prevent substance abuse by youth, ages 12 to 17. Over time, nearly 5,000 youth are expected to participate, and community volunteers are being recruited to mentor and assist them.

"To my knowledge, this has not been done before," Dr. Schoech said. "A lot of information exists on virtual communities, but using them to prevent social problems is a new experiment."

Professor's book explores Arlington politics.
Political science Associate Professor Allan Saxe chronicles the personalities, policies and elections that shaped Arlington for more than half a century in his new book, Politics of Arlington, Texas.

"For many years I've been a close observer of Arlington politics," Dr. Saxe said. "And although there have been some histories of Arlington published, there has never been anything focused specifically on the politics."

The book, a case study of the political workings in a booming mid-sized American city from post-World War II to the end of the millennium, is available in the UTA Bookstore and online at eakinpress.com for $24.95.

"We have so many new people coming in and out of the community, people who just don't know about this," said the one-time Arlington City Council candidate. "So I think the book is valuable in that sense. It brings back a lot of memories and personalities and acquaints the new people with a little bit of the history of Arlington.

"Plus, we all have a tendency to forget," he added.

Now, thanks to Dr. Saxe, we can all remember.