The Counseling Center’s Alcohol and Other Drugs program hosted the university’s fifth annual Booze-Boo to help provide alcohol education.
The event was held with the ETSU Farmer’s Market, something AOD hoped would bring more students by their booth.
“Last year we did Booze-Boo over the course of three days at random locations around campus, but even last year, before we knew what it would look like I thought the Farmer’s Market was such a great opportunity,” said Loren Biggs, outreach coordinator for AOD.
The event’s goal, is to provide basic information around about how to drink in safe ways if you choose to, something especially important as AOD notes Halloween is the highest risk day for drinking in college campuses.
On top of that, there was also added importance for these events on campus, as it comes on the heels of an ETSU fraternity — Kappa Sigma — being suspended, in part for violations regarding alcohol use.
“That’s one of the reasons we put a public face to AOD is because we’re really hoping organizations like that who either just want their members to be safer and have safer choices, or who have faced some penalty and want some type of corrective intervention [reach out to us].” Biggs said.
Biggs also said that AOD is actively trying to increase their outreach to other ETSU programs. While trying to get more information to groups such as fraternities, sororities, ROTC and athletics, Biggs said AOD has seen a spike in Greek-affiliated students seeking more information.
“One thing that I would like for students to focus on is learning what a standard drink is and how it differs across liquors, beers and wines and how to calculate a standard drink count for students.” Biggs said.
AOD will be hosting one more Booze-Boo before Halloween on Tuesday, Oct. 30 in Warf-Pickel Plaza between the Mini-Dome and Subway. There will also be similar events about alcohol safety before Spring Break in April.
