 "Photo: Marina Koren")
Students using the bathroom in residence halls may soon find themselves face-to-face with “Stall Stories,” fliers detailing drinking stories from students on campus.
Amy Richardson, a substance abuse counselor for Wellspring, said “Stall Stories” is the brainchild of the Office of Residence Life’s alcohol and drug committee. Part of the program’s campaign involves fliers that will be posted in the bathrooms and hallways of residence halls all over campus, she said. Slated to appear about once a month, the fliers will consist of anonymously submitted stories detailing the drinking experiences of university students.
“We want to create a campus-wide awareness of the risks of alcohol, the dangers and the concerns and to really provide education around those concerns,” Richardson said. “We want to offer tips for safety and responsible behavior. It’s much more a harm reduction kind of effort than it is prevention.”
The creators of the program are not trying to completely change the behaviors of students, Richardson said, they just want to affect decision making. While they have not yet received very many stories, she said they are hopeful things will pick up as the program becomes better recognized. Students can submit their own stories by going to www.tinyurl.com/stallstories, she said.
“The hope is that we can have a story that has some kind of message, and then we can provide a tip related to that persons story, a way they could have avoided it or pertinent information,” Richardson said. “We want to look at alcohol poisoning and the amnesty policy and we want to offer advice for alternative decisions and safety precautions.”
This new effort comes on the heels of the university’s recent decision to eliminate the three-strike policy and promote education as opposed to punishment via the Medical Amnesty and Good Samaritan protocol. The policy allows students to seek medical attention when there is a risk of alcohol poisoning, without any disciplinary consequences.
Junior Caitlin Xenakis, president of V8, an RSO that organizes non-drinking events on campus, said she has suggestions for other outlets to further improve the program.
“I think that it could be effective, but by posting it in the hallways, I don’t think that people will stop and actually take the time to read the stories,” Xenaki said. “I think that maybe if it were available online, more people would read it. Some might be interested, but want the privacy to read it in their own room. It’s a personal thing for some people.”
Junior Gillian Looney, secretary of V8, is optimistic about the program’s effectiveness.
“I think some will be at least more likely to drink responsibly after reading the stories,” Looney said. “The fact that the stories come from students and that the student who experienced it was moved enough to submit it, that it might make them reconsider binge drinking or open their eyes to the possibilities.”
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