The Office of Health Promotion (OHP), in collaboration with the UGBC, is set to kick off Rethink Drink Week this coming Monday. The effort is the latest in a series of initiatives aimed at sparking dialogue and awareness of Boston College's alcohol and drug culture by campus leaders this fall.
"ReThink Drink Week is geared toward promoting safe and healthy choices around alcohol use," said Robyn Priest, associate director of the OHP.
The week-long event will be highlighted by different, awareness-raising programming each day around campus. The itinerary includes a Monday kick-off celebration in the academic quad, alcohol surveys in the Plex on Tuesday, interactive "fatal vision" goggle demonstrations on Wednesday, Thursday's screening of the award-winning alcohol awareness documentary Haze, and a Friday "Kiss Me I'm Sober" dance in the O'Connell House.
"With ReThink Drink Week we want to have students see drinking from a different angle," said Krizia Vinck, UGBC co-director of Health and Safety and A&S '12. "It is cool not to drink and there is a safe way to drink if you do want to drink," she said.
The week's events will also touch on themes already featured in the "Stay in Your Green Zone" and "Kiss Me I'm Sober" campaigns launched earlier in the semester by OHP and UGBC. Portions of next week's programming will aim to inform students about healthy drinking, social issues associated with alcohol and drugs, alternative options to substance use, and resources for those in need of assistance when substance abuse becomes dangerous.
The program's placement before events that traditionally inspire riskier drinking is intentional, according to the programs creators.
"Oct. 31 is Halloween, Nov. 3. is the night home football game, and Homecoming Dance is Nov. 11, and all of these events historically have resulted in high-risk drinking among students and increases in the number of students needing medical assistance," said Priest. "[UGBC president] Mike [Kitlas] shared the idea of co-sponsoring Rethink Drink Week … just prior to these events associated with high-risk drinking in the hopes of encouraging students to make safe decisions every weekend, but especially during these types of events."
Other leaders spearheading the program described Rethink Drink Week as, ideally, a continuation of a campus-wide conversation on drinking and drug culture initiated this fall.
"During Healthapalooza, we initiated discussion and had some excellent responses," said John Muller, UGBC co-director of Health and Safety and A&S '14. "We look forward to … continuing the discussion that the student body has been a part of in response to the alcohol problem on campus," he said.
Vinck said that the Healthapalooza was the site of a fruitful campus dialogue on drug and alcohol issues over 500 members strong. Respondents at her UGBC booth voiced their opinions on questions ranging from their perceptions on a campus "alcohol problem" to the ways such an issue should be addressed by student leaders and administrators.
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