Fun Learning, Alcohol Awareness Week

Fun Learning, Alcohol Awareness Week

By. Elias Taveras

The United Student Government in honor of Alcohol Awareness Week, manage to create an interactive and educational program about alcohol abuse.

The event called ‘Arrive Alive Tour CarSimulator’ was at the Union Quad in the middle of the student union and E. H. Butler Library. The event was on Thursday between 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.  

When walking into the event, students found tables set up in lines. At the end of the line rested the main attraction, the car simulator. Every table and the car simulator were set as an individual station. Each provided students with different factual information and interactive activities.

The main attraction of the event was at the end of the tables. The driving under the influence simulator consist of a car that student got in to. It gave them a similar experience to that of drunk driving.

The DUI simulator is connected to the computer. When a person is drunk the signals from the brain to their head are slower. The computer simulates these late reactions as if the person was drunk, said Mitchel Vierhage, a representative of Unite International from Wyoming, Michigan.

“I am hoping that everyone that comes through would think twice before drinking and driving and texting and driving because we are trying to help you guys out. We do not want you to die so young,” said Vierhage.

When students got into the DIU simulator. They put their seat belts on and wore a helmet that covered their eyes. What students saw through the helmet was an obstacle course. Since the computer simulated a drunken person’s late reactions, students were most likely to crash.

Effectively, demonstrating how a person feels when driving under the influence.

The table before that had university police officers. They had special goggles that were called beer goggles. Kenneth Kloss, a UPD officer from Angola, described the goggles to be designed to show an impediment level of alcohol. Kloss said that the goggles mimic how an individual’s vision is when drunk.

“We are not trying to scare anyone we are just trying to let everybody see how is it to be drunk,” said Kloss. “Some people have never drank before so this is our way of telling them how they are going to feel.”

Students tried the goggles on and were told by the officer to walk in a straight line. Their feet had to go one in front of the other as if they were being tested by a real police officer. 

The goggles made it difficult to perform such a task because the vision through them made the person feel dizzy.

Students were able to learn from a spinning wheel at the Weigel Health Promotions table. It had factual, innovating, and miscellaneous information about alcohol abuse.

Dixie Hunter, a senior social work student, from Buffalo and intern at Weigel Health Promotions office said that she found it alarming to see that students do not know what they are consuming.

“Most students do not know how much alcohol they are consuming. They do not know what a shot really is or what a beer can is. They might be taking double shots or triple shots and be unaware of it,” said Hunter.

Many of the organizers of the event said that they wanted students to be careful and aware of what they drink.

“Some of the things that we want people to be aware of is that you can be mindful of what you drink and what other people are putting in your drink,” said Hunter.

The first table on the far right had representatives from the Violence Intervention and Victim Advocacy of Buffalo State College. Lindley Beardsley, a VIVA representative from Buffalo said that they were there to help.

“In a situation of domestic violence due to alcohol abuse, there are resources on campus that you can go to,” said Beardsley. “If not provided on campus there are drug treatment places that you can be referred to, ‘you are not alone is what we are trying to get out’.”

Designated Drivers of Buffalo were also there to inform students that they do not have to drive intoxicated. Ellen Page, a representative of Designated Drivers explained that there is no reason for students to drive when drunk.

“If a person is too drunk to drive or has a medical emergency we would pick them up between the hours of 8 pm and 4 am,” said Page.