SSAS at Rutgers

The Summer School of Alcohol Studies (SSAS) also moved to Rutgers in 1962, when the Center of Alcohol Studies moved from Yale. Launched in 1943 under the directorship of E. M. Jellinek, SSAS served as the model to evolving modern-day alcohol education programs over the decades in the United States and overseas. SSAS and its special iterations, such as the New Jersey Summer School, laid the foundation for alcohol and drug education programs, expanding Jellinek's early vision for many more decades to come. 

The first SSAS was held at Rutgers University in 1962 as the twenty-first session of the school, hosted by Douglass College in cooperation with the University Extension Division of Rutgers. The school was three weeks in length from June 30 to July 25 with an enrollment limited to 250 students. It was followed by an Alumni Institute and Conference in from July 28 to August 1. The new format met the needs of many students interested in specialized, professional training courses and allowed for growth for the school in the next year offering a two-week Physicians Institute for physicians, a one-week Northeast Institute for citizens serving in leadership positions but not professional concerned with alcohol problems, and a series of 14, three-week intensive training courses, each meeting daily for 80 minutes.

The curriculum was substantially revised to stress graduate-level training by the first Rutgers SSAS Director, Raymond G. McCarthy, an SSAS '43 alumnus and the Director of Education and Training at the newly minted Rutgers Center of Alcohol Studies. McCarthy became SSAS Director after filling the position of associate director of SSAS for both Rutgers and Yale from 1948 until 1961.  After his death, Milton Maxwell was recruited from Washington State University as Director in 1965, followed by Ronald Lester in 1974 and Gail G. Milgram in 1983, developing new education programs.