Each summer before arriving to campus, incoming first-year students complete the AlcoholEdu for College online course. This interactive program surveys students about their alcohol and drug consumption habits and empowers them to make responsible decisions and intervene in potentially dangerous situations.
To encourage honesty, responses are confidential and Northwestern only receives information about the student body as a whole. This year, Health Promotion and Wellness applied the Class of 2019’s responses to create a social norms campaign that seeks to clear up misconceptions about alcohol and drug consumption at Northwestern.
For instance:
- 1 in 3 first year students choose not to drink at all
- 72% of first year students have never used marijuana
Kevin Meier, Coordinator of Alcohol and Other Drug Education and Outreach for HPaW, said it’s important for students to know their peers’ habits so that they don’t feel a need to conform to what they assume others expect of them.
“The actual behaviors that are being expressed by their peers really are healthy versus what the media or other outside influences might tell them,” Meier said.
To view the entire social norms campaign, visit Health Promotion and Wellness.