The University of Hawai'i-Manoa found an unexpected donor when it came time to find new funding for a program aimed at curbing excessive drinking on campus.

Anheuser-Busch, the nation's largest beer company, handed a $240,000 check to the university yesterday in a news conference on campus. The money will go toward a campaign targeted mostly to freshmen in dormitories.

The campaign, dubbed the "Manoa Alcohol Project," tries to deter binge drinking by pointing students to figures that show most of their peers don't abuse alcohol.

It was kick-started in 2005 with a $300,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education, which expires in July.

The Anheuser-Busch grant is payable over four years.

Nancy Stockert, chairwoman of the health promotion program at UH-Manoa, said the alcohol-awareness project is based on successful programs at other universities.

"Rather than focusing on 'just say no,' which has not worked, we are putting emphasis on ... educating them in a way that they will believe the information," she said.

Most recently, the program publicized the results of a 2004 survey of 442 students that showed about 75 percent had not participated in binge drinking.

Stockert said the new funding will allow the program to expand beyond the dorms and also provide training for dorm resident hall advisers and other staff members.

Grant Teichman, Manoa student president, said the education program is a good idea, especially for freshmen.

But he also criticized the university's policy on drinking, saying administrators concentrate more on punishing behavior than preventing or treating it.

Teichman said he lived in the dorms four years and never received educational information on binge drinking.

"I don't see any educational program," said Teichman, who has since moved out of the dorms.