Officials are formally observing alcohol awareness week for the first time this academic year.
The National Collegiate Alcohol Awareness week is observed Oct. 17-21, but, due to Fall Break, OCU will host events on campus from Oct. 19-21.
“We’ve had programs in years passed, but this is the first time we’re really going on a much larger scale,” said Levi Harrel, Assistant Director for Student Development.
The university’s Alcohol and Other Drug Committee will partner with Panhellenic Council and the Dean of Students office to organize the events.
“Coffee with the Cops” will be at 8:30 a.m. Oct. 19 -21 in Walker Hall, Methodist Hall and the Cokesbury clubhouse. The events are meant to make students more comfortable with campus law enforcement. There will be donuts, coffee, and hot chocolate served.
Officials will screen the movie 28 Days, which deals with alcoholism and rehabilitation on 7:30 p.m. Oct. 19 in Walker Hall lobby.
“It shines light on responsible drinking habits and irresponsible drinking habits and things along those lines,” Harrel said.
Members of the Alcohol and Other Drug Committee will distribute information about alcohol usage to students Oct 20 during lunchtime in Tom and Brenda McDaniel University Center.
“It’s more that just a pamphlet,” Harrel said. “It’s ways that students will find hopefully engaging and stimulating and will help them become more aware.”
Panhellenic council members will join OCUPD on Oct. 21 during lunch in the university center to do drunk goggle demonstrations. Drunk goggles are glasses that distort vision and make students view things as if they are drunk. Students will attempt to walk in a straight line while wearing the goggles.
“Students will really process the information of what it’s like to you have to much to drink,” Harrel said. “That is what your actual view of the world is like, and they can see how distorted that is from your normal sober everyday behavior.”
The goal of these activities is to educate students about the dangers of alcohol use and inform them of safe ways to navigate situations, Harrel said.
“We recognize that alcohol education is important,” he said. “We take any opportunity we have to get in front of the topic and educate students not only on what the policy is or what the law is, but what safe and responsible behavior looks like.”
University policy forbids alcohol on campus, but Harrel said he is most interested in making sure students are making responsible choices.
“What we’re concerned about is education and making sure that students are safe,” he said.
Counseling services will be available to any students who struggle with alcoholism or other drug addictions, Harrel said.
One topic officials will discuss throughout the week is what constitutes a serving size of alcohol.
“You would be floored by what students believe a serving size of alcohol is and what a serving size of alcohol actually is,” Harrel said.
Multiple factors contribute to the effects of alcohol like a person’s body type and diet, Harrel said.
“We all metabolize things differently, and that can be due to your height, weight, your sex, what you’ve eaten today, what you’ve not eaten today, or what medications you’re on,” he said. “There’s so many factors that go into play that we don’t always think about when we take a drink at a party.”
Another issue officials will address is how alcohol consumption contributes to the likelihood of sexual assault. Half of sexual assaults reported nationally involve alcohol. The statistic is in line with what happens on campus, Police Chief Bradd Brown said. Three of the six reported sexual assaults in 2015 involved alcohol.
A survey about alcohol usage was distributed Aug. 29 by Lesley Black, associate dean of students. Officials will distribute the survey’s results during Alcohol Awareness week.
“We can talk about national statistics every day of the week, and that’s important, but we want to put the alcohol usage survey out there so that we can talk about our student body and what that means,”Harrel said.
To read about students’ perspective on the alcohol usage survey, click here. http://mediaocu.com/2016/10/03/alcohol-survey-receives-low-response-rates/
Kathryn Sugianto, undecided freshman, said she is interested in attending the events in the hopes that she learns something. She said she could see Alcohol Awareness Week being helpful for students who come from smaller or more sheltered schools.
“People who weren’t taught before will get that experience now,” Sugianto said. ”With this education, people can be safer about drinking and more responsible about it.”
It can be dangerous for students to turn to alcohol when they’re stressed, Sugianto said. She said these activities could teach students what to do and what not to do with alcohol.
“I think it’s important because we’re in college now, and we’re at the point in our lives where we’re going to be stressed out and conflicted with a lot of things, and we should know when it’s okay to drink and how much is okay to drink,” she said.
Sugianto said it could be helpful for students to speak to police officers about alcohol because the presence of authority may convince students to pay more attention.
“Cops are just trying to keep us safe,” Sugianto said. “And I think that figure of authority speaking to you might scare you a little bit into doing what’s right as opposed to underage drinking.”
She also said that the drunk goggle experiment could teach students how impaired their vision and actions may be when they’ve consumed too much alcohol.
“Knowing that your judgement is going to be flawed and knowing how unsafe it’s going to be for you, since your vision is going to be blurred, could make you a little more scared to go out and recklessly drink copious amounts of alcohol,” Sugianto said.
Leave a Reply