Although the weather was not as cold as they expected it to be, members of the Student Advocacy Office warmed and informed students Tuesday during this month’s student advocacy forum.
As student advocates handed out hot chocolate, mugs, bookmarks and frisbees during lunchtime, they offered information to passing students about alcohol and the effects of drinking and driving.
The Alcohol and Drug Education Center had a table at the advocacy forum, with cards about different drugs and their effects. The group also brought vision-impairment goggles that simulate the effects of alcohol?ranging from mildly drunk to dangerous levels of intoxication.
As part of the forum, students wearing the goggles played the Off-Road Challenge game in the first floor of the Union. This game is a driving simulation, and the activity was meant to show what it is like to drink and drive.
“It’s very hard,” said student advocate Jason Chadwick as he left the game machine. Despite the difficulties, Chadwick said he played better with the goggles than without.
“At first it’s fine, but once you start moving around, it’s difficult to concentrate,” said Jake Smith, another student advocate. “It was impossible to drive on the video game.”
The forum also included an information poster offering students various facts about alcohol, including the dietary effects, how drinking and driving affects other people and other reasons not to drink irresponsibly.
According to Erin Gill, Student Advocacy Office director, they chose to discuss alcohol during this forum because it occurred just before the holidays and a long break when students attend more parties than usual. Other ideas for this forum included landlord and tenant issues or rape awareness. According to Gill, her office will probably use these ideas during Spring Semester.
Paul Harman, the president of Speak Out, said he was participating with the forum not to say that drinking was “necessarily bad,” but only to teach students of the negative effects drinking can have.
“Students had a lot of fun,” Gill said. “Quite a few stopped to talk to the drug education center.”
Besides educating students about alcohol, the Student Advocacy Office also wanted to let more students know about their office and what services they have available for students. The 60 bookmarks, 100 mugs and 15 frisbees handed out during the forum had the phone number and Student Advocacy Office hours on them.
“We can be a great asset to students,” Smith said. “Some students just run around blind in solving their problems.”
The advocacy office counsels between 15 and 20 students weekly with family, legal or university related problems.
“We’d love to get more traffic because we can handle it,” Gill said.