Last Call: Students face the facts on alcohol

Students beware: "Drunk" drivers loose on campus! College students across the nation indulged their inner party animals by participating in campus events for National Collegiate Alcohol Awareness Week.

Residential Programs, the University Clinic, and the University Police worked together to bring the awareness week to ASU students.

This nationally recognized week is traditionally held at over 3,000 campuses nationwide during the third full week in October.

The NCAAW Chairman Dr. Edward Hammond, President of Fort Hays State University, says that the goal of the week is to present students with the effects and consequences of excessive drinking and empower them to watch out for each other.

Freshman Devin Saur tested her "drunk" driving skills Tuesday afternoon at the Drunk Busters event.

"The driving is something fun to do," Saur said. "But it's also something you have to take seriously in real life. I think (this activity) is beneficial to us."

Drunk Busters gave students the opportunity to maneuver a golf cart through a course of orange cones while wearing "beer goggles." The purpose was for them to see the difference in driving ability between stone sober and one too many.

The Texas Department of Transportation sponsored "The Convincer," a rollover accident synthesizer. Students watched as dummies were thrown from the cab of a truck with one flip of the vehicle.

"I was once in a rollover," Saur said. "So the reality of this really hits home."

Other events this week included a presentation by the University Police about Texas alcohol and drinking laws, a presentation entitled "Can I Kiss You? A Hilarious Look at Dating, Hooking Up and How We Talk." Also, students got to show off their beer pong skills in a game of "Blazing Glasses," played with non-alcoholic beverages of course.

Dallas Swafford, Enhancement Programs Coordinator for Residential Programs, organized the week.

"We're just trying to find creative ways to educate students on the effects of alcohol," Swafford said. "If they're going to drink, we want them to drink responsibly. Student education and student safety is our main goal, but we want to make it fun and interactive."

Members of the faculty and student body helped in the education efforts by sporting black T-shirts with statistics about alcohol use on the back. Also a "grim reaper" paid visits to five unlucky souls during classes to give the full effect of alcohol abuse.

"I feel that it's a good idea, and that people really need to know about this kind of stuff," Saur said. "I know that I went to a high school where they were really big on teaching it, but I don't think a lot of other schools did, so not everyone knows."

Although ASU does not hold the same stereotype for being a party school as other colleges, alcohol use and abuse has a presence among any college community.

"There are a lot of people that become twenty-one in college," Saur said. "And they need to know about it. And then the people who aren't twenty-one are obviously going to go out and drink and take risks for it."

The purpose of NCAAW is for students to take responsibility for their education on the problems and dangers involved with alcohol, and use that knowledge to prevent regrettable consequences for themselves or innocent bystanders.

"Regardless of how many people show up to the events this week," Swaffor said. "Even if we reach just one or two, that's one or two more people reached than if we hadn't done anything."