Carleton has implemented a new four-year alcohol strategy to educate students on responsible drinking, according to Ryan Flannagan, director of student affairs.
The new strategy is different from a policy in that a policy is more about service and advertisement of alcohol on campus, while the strategy is about educating the community about alcohol consumption, he said.
Flannagan said the strategy’s main goal is “to reduce the level of binge drinking and increase the awareness of students and their responsible drinking strategies.”
“Ultimately, we want our first-year students drinking more like third and fourth-year students earlier in their university careers,” he said.
Flannagan said the strategy has specific initiatives to deal with increased alcohol consumption at certain times and events in the year, such as Capital Hoops, homecoming games, Halloween, and St. Patrick’s Day.
He said implementation of the strategy has already started with posters and LCD screens around campus, as well as pieces in the student newsletter.
The first set of activities is scheduled to take place on campus at the homecoming game on Oct. 18, he said.
Flannagan said the university hired a new staff person and two peer helpers to help design and implement the strategy.
“We’re also working closely with residence . . . and campus safety as they too play an important role,” he said.
“We’ve got a really strong relationship with [the Carleton Undergraduate Students’ Association] as they run an on-campus pub, so we have an ongoing dialogue with them about various ways of encouraging people to drink responsibly.”
There will a yearly report on changing trends in students’ alcohol consumption, Flannagan said.
“Hopefully at this point next year, I’ll be able to tell you what level of drinking that we saw for this year, and then again in the following year, we’ll be able to say, ‘As a result, hopefully as a result of our strategy, we’ve seen an increase in the number of people who are drinking responsibly,” he said.
Related related:
