Collegiate Times

The Campus Alcohol Abuse Prevention Center runs a program that aims to show students that drinking isn't the only thing to do on weekends.

Three years ago, the center created its Event Promotion Assistance program, which helps create awareness of alcohol-free Virginia Tech student activities.

The center does this by enhancing the publicity of events for different clubs, many of which have tight advertising budgets. In providing their services free of charge - excluding A-frame wooden displays, which cost $32 - the center puts up many of the billboards found on the Drillfield and table cards in the dining halls.

Steven Clarke, the director of the CAAPC, acknowledged that the program may not "deter" drinking. However, he also says 20 percent of Tech students do not drink, and that is the target group of the Event Promotion program.

The specific goal of the program is more limited in scope than the overall goal of the center.

Clarke said the advertising campaign is designed to make students who choose not to drink aware of alternatives. One of the biggest challenges in operating the program, Clarke said, is getting clubs and organizations to hold their events later in the evening - when drinking hours are at a peak.

To achieve this, the center has criteria that organizations must meet before the center prints their fliers. Events must occur on weekend days (Thursday, Friday, Saturday), on "drinking" holidays, such as St. Patrick's Day or before football games, or be a multicultural event. The center also asks that events not end before 11:30 p.m. Receiving between 12 and 15 requests each year, the center has worked with the German Club, the Swing Dance Club and the Ballroom Dancing Club among others to market their activities.

Kevin Ayoub, an event planner with University Unions and Student Activities, works closely with Clarke to schedule alternative events on campus.

"It goes hand-in-hand," Ayoub said. "Dr. Clarke is trying to make sure late-night programming on campus is available, and we make the reservations."

Ayoub's office provides reservations for all events taking place in the student center but does not promote the events it plans. However, it does work with student organizations to market them.

While the center has offered this service for the past few years, Clarke says it's only recently begun to get its name out to campus clubs on a broad scale.

Ingrid Ngai, president of the Council of International Student Organizations, first discovered the center last year before its Street Fair event. When the weather forecast forced the evening indoors to Squires Student Center, Clarke volunteered to help get the word out about the change in location. Ngai said the advertising help provided a significant boost in attendance.

One of the added benefits for CISO was that the publicity came at no cost to them.

"Our publicity has a fixed monetary amount decided upon by the Budget Board, and they are very specific to what we can and cannot do," said Nihar Samal, a CISO representative. "When (Anuja Agnihotri, also a CISO representative) and I think of other ideas that might benefit our organization, we go talk to CAAPC."

He also pointed out that the center's staff knows the campus and which locations will have the most eyes on it.

"They have a lot of experience on campus, and this helps us to refine our ideas and gain a bigger audience at our events," Samal said.

Created in the summer of 2001 in response to the Attorney General's report on college drinking, the center is charged with the duty of fighting underage drinking and educating Tech students on how to drink responsibly.