News

October NCAAW campaign ready for launch

The iChoose campaign encourages students to make healthy choices.

Plans are in place for National Collegiate Alcohol Awareness Week (NCAAW), October 16-22. NCAAW is promoted by NIRSA and the other member associations of the Inter-Association Task Force on Alcohol and Other Substance Abuse Issues (IATF), an umbrella organization of higher education associations. Another member in the IATF coalition, The BACCHUS and GAMMA Peer Education Network, has developed this year's NCAAW campaign, titled "iChoose," along with promotional and educational products and materials for use on campuses.

The iChoose Campaign "encourages students to choose a healthy future." Many items are imprinted with artwork in bright colors of green and blue and contain messages of student empowerment to make safe choices, to take care of friends and keep safe by not drinking to excess, and to avoid both driving after drinking and riding with a driver who has been drinking. The campaign reminds students to protect their health, their academics, their friendships and their future, and challenges students to plan in advance for their own personal health and safety. The iChoose messages are imprinted on posters, stadium cups, memo boards, T-shirts, water bottles, carabiner clip pens, key rings and other items, which, along with pamphlets and other awareness publications, can be ordered from the BACCHUS Network Materials Center.

More than 1,000 colleges and universities in the U.S. and abroad recognize the importance of campus prevention efforts addressing alcohol abuse, and act upon that recognition by promoting NCAAW. In this year's program, as always, students will have the opportunity to participate in a variety of events, all designed to reinforce personal responsibility and respect for current state laws and school policies when it comes to the consumption of alcoholic beverages.

More information on NCAAW can be found on the IATF Web site. Details on iChoose products are available on the BACCHUS Network Web site.