Driving Opportunity

By Cloe Pohlman, Public Relations Undergraduate Student

College is about freedom, but with freedom comes responsibility. A big part of that is being able to go where you want to go, which in central Missouri means having a license to drive.

Two programs were made possible by donor-funded Opportunity Grants in fiscal year 2024 to help students get a license and get around safely: Drive Safe UCM and Cannabis Impairment Education.

Drive Safe UCM

Drive Safe UCM was designed to help international students learn about driving in the U.S. and acquire their driver’s licenses. It is a four-hour course in a classroom setting that discusses the rules of the road, how to obtain a license, what to do in encounters with law enforcement and the American culture around cars and driving.

The popular culture surrounding driving in the U.S. has ties to the mass production of the earliest automobiles, car shows, the glamorization of hot rods and drag racing in post-World War II entertainment, the lore of Route 66 and Americans’ general infatuation with owning a vehicle.

“There are differences with the United States and other countries around the world as to what driving actually is,” says Mike Perkins, senior program manager for the Missouri Safety Center, who taught the Drive Safe UCM classes. “For the United States, it’s not just necessarily a way to get from point A to point B; there’s a big portion of the population that actually uses cars for entertainment to go out and drive around. The culture of cars and how they evolved and things like car clubs ... a lot of the international students found that to be really interesting.”

In some countries, including India, which is home to the majority of UCM’s international students, people drive on the left side of the road instead of the right, with the steering wheel being on the right-hand side of the vehicle. Other differences that may surprise international students include less public transportation, more complex and expensive ride-share services, and fewer walkable cities.

Since January, more than a dozen students have completed the Drive Safe UCM program, and the Missouri Safety Center plans to continue offering the course in the future.

Cannabis Impairment Education

In December 2022, recreational marijuana was legalized in Missouri. The Cannabis Impairment Education program was designed to educate students about the dangers of driving under the influence.

According to the 420 Drug-Impaired Driving Enforcement Campaign by the Missouri Coalition for Roadway Safety, drug-impaired driving contributed to 7% of all 2023 Missouri traffic fatalities. In 2023, 73 people were killed and 167 seriously injured in crashes that involved at least one drug-impaired driver. Drugimpaired Missouri drivers under the age of 21 were involved in five fatal and 13 serious injury crashes in 2023, in which eight people were killed and 22 seriously injured.

In an effort to reduce the number of students driving under the influence, Sergeant Joe Jennings with the UCM Department of Public Safety applied for and received an Opportunity Grant to purchase cannabis impairment goggles. Similar to goggles used to mimic drunkenness, these devices and five paired activities are designed to mimic the cognitive and physiological impairment caused by cannabis use.

One activity involves a maze on a dry-erase board. The first time students do the activity, it’s generally quick and easy to complete. However, when students put on the goggles and try the same maze again, it is significantly harder due to the visual impairment the goggles cause and the inability to remember the route they had previously taken to complete the maze.

“What cannabis is ultimately doing is affecting that psychophysical ability to see something, react to it and understand what you’re seeing, which is all pretty important when you’re driving a car,” says Jennings, who is known as one of the top four most active drug recognition experts in Missouri.

The equipment is used in introductorylevel college-orientation classes at UCM and at various university events. The goal is to reach as many people as possible and raise awareness about how quickly cannabis can affect your memory and judgment while driving. Since August 2023, approximately 500 campus community members have participated in the Cannabis Impairment Education project.

College life brings a thrilling mix of freedom and responsibility. These two Opportunity Grants not only educate students but also foster a safer and more informed community for everyone.